


Sacrifice

by OrchidPeach560 (Miss_Webb)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: All the ships and parings are valid, Everybody Lives, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Imma reunite everyone, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, M/M, Multi, Original Character Death(s), Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-01 04:39:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14512734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Webb/pseuds/OrchidPeach560
Summary: Infinity War Spoilers Ahead:_Not moments after you watch the fallout of Thanos' perfect world coming to life, billions of voices wave through your head. Until one focuses. Telling you everything you need to know.Like the fact that you're the only one who can bring everyone back.Alls you gotta do is get a bunch of neon rocks, being held by a purple thumb with a god complex.Should be easy right?Aka: The Reader Fic, Fix-it I started writing the moment I got home from the theater.





	1. Voices

**Author's Note:**

> Infinity War Spoilers In this fic, literally from the get go! Please don't read if you're not willing to spoil the movie, or haven't already seen it. I don't want to ruin your lives, i'm trying to fix this heartbreaking movie. 
> 
> I'm going to be writing as many fix-it's as physically possible until the next movie comes out and hopefully rectify's it on canon. Until then, i'm taking prompts here or on my tumblr: https://orchidpeach560.tumblr.com/

Dust clouded the skies, casting pockets of shadows. Everywhere you looked you saw traces of it, people, memories, hopes, dreams. They all crumbled and flew as if they were nothing. One of the worst parts was the lack of anything to hold onto. They just faded. You watched your mother crumble right before your eyes, and your baby brother in your hands crumbled dropping between your fingers. Maybe it’s better you think morbidly.

It’s better than gore, and bloody bodies the city would have been forced to clean after this tragedy. It’s better than hearing the screams of pain. They simply floated away. Almost peacefully.

It’s too soon. That doesn’t change. There was no chance to say goodbye. Everyone was simply there one second and gone the next. You’re not quite sure how to handle the loss. It’s shock, you’re sure that the numbness you feel keeping you from crying or fully experiencing the grief is shock.

You sit on your knees listening to the sobs, of people around you, the crying, the screaming for lost parents, and children. Cars crashing from sudden lack of drivers. You’re almost ready to cry yourself when a pain whites through your head. You clutch it and try to ride out the pain.

It fades slowly and you realize the cause, it’s noise, high pitched slowly tuning in. Its voices, too many to count, all overlapping. But one speaks louder than the rest, it’s calmer too, with lots of focus.

 _“Y/n, Y/n can you hear me?”_ A man’s voice comes in.

“What- who? What?”

_“Y/n. If you can hear me, I need you to listen very closely. Stand up, right now, and run. Leave the block.”_

You stand slowly. You’ve just lost the only two people important to you and so has the rest of the world it seems like. So, you go out on a limb and decide to listen to the voice in your head. What else are you going to do?

You start walking down the sidewalk, cautiously.

_“Y/n, I’m going to need you to go a bit faster. It’s a matter of life and death.”_

You speed up, almost breaking into a full sprint until you’re across the street. “Is here good?”

_“Yes, but I’d suggest covering your head, just to be safe.”_

“Cover my he-” You’re only just making the movements, where there’s a terrible screech, and a semi crashes into the building you were just standing in front of, and only seconds later it goes up in flames, engine colliding with something causing an explosion, you feel the force of it from across the street and are knocked on your ass.

 You cough heavily, feeling an ache in the arm you landed on. You watch the destruction spread and a big cloud of smoke rising from the truck catching the building on fire, it’ spreading. All right where you were standing. If you hadn’t moved… you would be dead.

“How did you know?”

 _“I’ve seen it, I’ve seen this play out over a thousand times. But that’s not all I’ve seen. Y/n, there’s something else I’m going to need you to do.”_ He says you don’t even know if he’s real, or if he’s a figment of your imagination, but he saved your life, which kind of makes you more than willing to listen.

“What?”

_“I’m going to need you to save us all.”_

“What- why me? Who are you?”

_“My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, and you’re the only one who can help us.”_

“Us?”

_“Half of the entire of the universe. We’re not dead. You can save us.”_

“How?”

_“First I need you to find Steve Rogers.”_

_

“Oh god.” That’s all Steve was able to say, looking down at Bucky’s gun. That’s all that was left of him. Wakanda grows eerily silent. Maybe it’s the lack of people, or the mass grief lulling them all into a silence. Natasha lays a hand on his shoulder.

“Steve-”

“Don’t.” He strains. “Don’t say my name.” That’s the last thing Bucky said.

“What do we do?” She asks. It’s the question everyone’s been asking because they’ve got to fix it. They have to. The world, the universe… it’s depending on them. They can’t let it end like this, they can’t just lose.

Sadly, Steve doesn’t know how to fix it or what to do. He’s lost. For all his muster, for everything he’s said about fighting together, for all his strength, everything he’s overcome, he couldn’t do it when it truly mattered. He keeps thinking, where did It all go wrong? Maybe if he could go back, then maybe it would all be fine. But he can’t go back, and going forward seems like it’s not truly an option. Thanos is gone, and so is half the universe.

Bucky. God. It’s been so long since he’s seen Bucky. He spent too long apart, and he couldn’t even say goodbye. When he starts thinking about everyone he’s spent too little time with, he suddenly feels a pull in his heart even more. Who else is gone? It could be anyone, it was random selection, right?

“We need to round everyone up. Then we can make a plan.”

She looks around the field. “Who’s left?”

Steve finds himself worried about the person that wasn’t here, to begin with. Tony.

_

You’re walking down New York talking to yourself, well, the voice in your head, not that anyone around can see. Yet, there are a lot fewer people to see you. Which you can’t even allow yourself to begin to feel grateful for.

“You want me to what?”

_“Keep going straight. Don’t stop, at the end of the street is a corner store. Go inside, straight to the counter, and buy a burner phone.”_

“I have a cellphone.”

_“No, you don’t.”_

You roll your eyes. “Shows what you know.” You reach into your pocket, and stop when you meet nothing but empty space. “What? Where the hell is my phone?”

_“You dropped it when you fell during the explosion. Don’t go back for it. It will only get you killed later.”_

“What?”

_“An alarm will go off when you're hiding, and you will be found and killed.”_

“When I’m hiding?”

_“Don’t worry about that either. It won’t come to that if you keep walking. Go. You’re losing precious time.”_

“Bossy much?” You comment and continue walking. You see the corner store a few minutes later and go it. Phones exactly where he said they were. You reach for the one at the top and-

 _“Not that one!”_ You flinch at the urgency in his voice. _“The one below it.”_ You lower your hand reaching for the one a rack down.

“Why couldn’t I use that one?”

_“You would have died.”_

“Because of a phone?”

_“The battery is faulty which would cause a chemical leak when you got exposed to high heats and you would have been burned, distracting you, resulting in death.”_

“Okay. I’m not freaking out.” You take another breath. “I’m not freaking out.” You turn to the counter and realize there’s no clerk. “Oh god. Where’s the-?”

_“Gone. I forgot to mention that. Just walk out.”_

“You want me to steal it?”

_“It’s a waste of time to even talk to you about this. There’s no one there, half the universe is missing, just go.”_

“Go where?”

_“Leave the building and walk down the highway. You’re going to need to make a call.”_

“This Steve guy?”

_“No. You’re going to call an AI.”_

_

 The group of survivors is depressingly small. Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Okoye, M’Baku, Rocket, Rhody, and Shuri. There’s some other’s Steve doesn’t know their names, they are scattered from different tribes. 

“Okay.” Steve steps up. “Thanos has all the stones, and he’s- he’s done it. Wiped out half the universe. Which means… he might not be expecting us. He thinks we’re down, too depressed to fight. So we can… find him and get the stones, and set this right.”

“How do we even get to Thanos?” Okoye asks. “We don’t know where he is, how to track him, and I think it’s clear we have no advantage in this, even if you give one of your speeches. We are down in numbers, and numbers weren’t enough to stop him. It won’t be enough now.”

“We have to try.” Steve starts.

“No. Thanos got what he wanted. He took our king, our people, and he destroyed our land. That’s what he did to the universe.” Okoye looks down, “We lost.”

“That doesn’t mean roll over and show our bellies in fear! We fight!”

“Cap,” Natasha says, stopping him. “She has a point. We have nothing, no leads, no advantage, and even if we did win… it’s not going to bring everyone back.”

“It could! We could think of something!” he slams his hands down on the table and fights the tears in his eyes. “We can’t give up.” He whispers. “There’s got to be something.”

As if on cue, there’s a beeping that emits from Bruce’s suit. They all turn to him and he looks down confused. “I thought this thing was done for sure.” He picks up the helmet examining the source of the beeping. “Hopefully it’s not a self-destruct kind of beep.” He places his head into the helmet getting a look at the screen, he realizes it’s Friday.

“I’ve got a call coming through, for Steve Rogers.”

Bruce looks confused. “Through you?”

“I was told to link it directly to the suit. Please pass it to him.” Bruce pulls it off and hands it to Steve. “Apparently it’s for you.”

“Is it Tony?”

“She didn’t say.” He shrugs.

Steve puts the helmet on with more desperation he was planning to show to the room, but he didn’t care enough to slow his moments down. “Put the call through Friday.” It connects and the beeping stops. “Hello? Tony?” Steve asks.

“Um no.” You say, feeling uncertain.

 _“Just tell him what I told you.”_   Stephen reminds you. _“You don’t have time to be shy.”_

“Who is this?” Steve asks, trying not to let his disappointment show.

“Hi, I was told to call you. That you would help me save the missing half of the universe?” You chuckle because it sounds insane.

Steve pauses. “Excuse me?”

_“Tell him what I said.”_

“He said that I should tell you, Bucky is alive. But not for long.”

_“Now tell him it’s also everyone.”_

“Everyone’s alive, and I need your help to save them before it’s too late.”

“Okay, you’ve got my attention. What do you need?”

“I need you to come to New York, and then help me find Tony Stark.”


	2. Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was getting lazy so like halfway through I stopped putting what everyone was saying in quotes. But just for everyone who's in the reader's head. It's easier to just italic than do both, but that might not stay that way. I'm sure it'll be fine. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Tony was alone. Truly for the first time he felt emptiness. Before this, he would have sworn he felt it. He would have been wrong. He didn’t even notice how or when Nebula left, but it seemed she found something better to do than sticking behind. Stuck, stranded, alone on Titans desolate surface, he heard nothing but silence and the whistling of the wind. But in his head, he replayed those last moments. Peter crying in his arms.

Tony had tried to say that it would be okay. But it wasn’t. Peter’s gone. Everyone’s gone. They had failed. Stranges’ last words still echoing in his head as well.

_There was no other way._

What the hell kind of last words are those? Tony chuckles humorlessly at the thought. Wiping the blood and tears from his face. He needed to move. To do something. Think for god sake, he is an engineer surrounded by alien technology, and whatever’s left of his nanobots.

But there’s also the wound in his side. The fix he gave was temporary. It would stop the bleeding for now, but he couldn’t heal without medical attention. Which he didn’t have here. Moving around would only shorten the time it lasted.

It’s not like he could wait to be saved either. If everyone here died… then Thanos no doubt killed half of everyone everywhere like he planned. Tony didn’t even want to think about who else is on that death count he knew.

He doesn’t think he could handle it if he does.

_

You’re tired. Of course, you are. You’ve got voices in your head, chattering at a low level like a persistent bee around your ears keeping you from being able to fall asleep. Your feet hurt from walking around all day. The streets were devoid of people, but not of other cars. Driving was near impossible, so you were forced to walk. You’re in some building that Stephen gave you the address to. He called it the New York Sanctum or something. You had a hard time relaxing. There was a grandfather clock in the hall the echoed with every tick.

You clutch a backpack to your chest. Stephen told you to collect some things in the bag and keep it close. It was clothes, water in a bottle, and some surgical level medical supplies. At first, you were worried about why you needed to be so well stocked with that, but he told you it was for someone else. Which only gave you a smidge of relief.

You’d met a man named Wong not long ago. Gave him word for word instructions from Stephen. He seemed hesitant to believe you until you mentioned someone named ‘Dormammu’ and his skepticism seemed to fade away.

You could hear him pacing downstairs. Stephen gave you the exact minute that Wong was supposed to open a portal of some kind so Steve could come through. There were only five minutes until last time you checked, you look over at the clock, now it’s about one. You stand, deciding you should be there when they come through, and for the first time in a while, Stephen’s voice breaks through the buzz to speak to you.

_“I should warn you now. Meeting him will be painful.”_

“Painful? Why?”

_“There are billions of us trapped, our only connection to the world is through you. Meeting someone they know will draw them to the surface of your mind. Which was painful the first time I did it, and it will be when they do it.”_

“Can you make it not hurt?”

_“I cannot.”_

 You sigh heavily. “Maybe I shouldn’t meet him then.”

_“You need to. For this to work you need Steve and Tony, without them, we are all lost.”_

“Why can’t they just do it? I’m not…” You pause, “I’m not even sure what happened, one day there’s an alien ship in New York, and the next day, people are just turning to dust.” You feel tears burn the back of your eyes, memories of your mom and brother coming to mind. “Maybe you should just go be in their heads, and have them save the world.”

_“Y/n. This may be hard for you to understand, but there is no other way. Fourteen-billion futures and the only one where we all come out alive is with you at the very front of it.”_

“How do you know?” You ask, “How do you always know what’s going to happen before it happens? How do you know where I should go and where I should be? How do you know it’s going to work?”

_“There is something called an Infinity Stone. Actually, there are six. One I’ve had the pleasure of protecting for a while, it’s called the Time Stone. It allowed me to see the future, all possible futures.”_

“And you couldn’t have saved yourself?”

_“This is me saving myself. It just also happens to save everyone else.”_

That makes you laugh, wiping a stray tear from your face. “Can you tell me how it ends?”

_“I’m not sure you’re ready for that. It might change things if you know too much in advance.”_

You head down the stairs when you hear some new voices enter a conversation. Wong must have teleported him, but it sounds like more than one.

_“Stop!”_ You almost trip when you lose footing on the step flinching at the sudden yell.

“What?”

_“Don’t move. Something changed.”_

“What changed?”

_“He brought them with him.”_

“Who?”

_“Natasha, Bruce, and a raccoon.”_

“They brought a raccoon?”

_“It was only supposed to be Steve.”_

“So, what should I do?”

_“They have to leave. They’re supposed to be with Thor. I don’t understand why they aren’t.”_

“Who’s Thor?”

_“The god of thunder.”_

“There’s a god of thunder?” You’re about to ask for more details but down the stairs, you can hear Wong say your name, and then footsteps heading in your direction. “They’re coming. Should I leave?”

_“No, you need to tell them to find Thor. Just brace yourself.”_

Rounding the corner, you see a group of shadows growing in size. The first person to come into view is actually the raccoon. It’s in full gear and walking on two legs. You’re about to laugh and launch into a litany of question about how and why, but then you hear them. Multiple voices, suddenly growing in volume in your head, calling out, yelling for someone named Rocket. You clutch your head as it becomes too much. It feels so much worse than it did that first time couched down on the sidewalk.

As the other’s come into view, so do the number of voices. Black dots appear in your vision and your eyes roll back. You barely register the feeling of gravity pulling you down as you fall, too caught up in the voices all yelling speaking over each other. You black out with the force of it.

_

Steve was the last to round the corner, he barely gets one glance at you when your eyes roll back and you begin falling. Despite not knowing you, he doesn’t hesitate to push past Natasha and Bruce, and up the steps just in time to stop your head from hitting the edge of a stair. He then picks you up, straining a little, feeling an injury in his side from his brush up with Thanos. He broke several bones, but already they were healing, he just needed to wait a little longer.

He lays you down gently on the ground looking up to Wong for answers. “This is Y/n?”

Wong nods.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Wong shrugs. Bruce pulls on his glasses and bends down next to you, checking for a pulse.

“Strong pulse.” He looks over you. “No obvious injuri-” He cuts himself off, looking up at your ears. “Got some bleeding in the ears.” He lifts your nose taking a look. “Here too.”

Steve looks back to Wong. “Are you the one who told Y/n to call?”

“No, that was Stephen.”

“Dr. Strange? Where is he?” Steve looks around. He’s heard about Strange during his time away. He doesn’t associate with Shield or call himself an Avenger, but he’s still a help to the world. Shield has kept tabs on him ever since an event in Hong Kong.

“He is among the ones we lost.” Wong isn’t a man of many expressions, but he manages to look sad at the words. Only serving to confuse Steve more.

“So, what? He gave the order before he died? How are we supposed to fix this? How do we find Tony? Do you know where he is?”

“Somehow, Y/n is able to commune with him. I don’t know how. But he gives orders still from wherever they are.”

“And Tony?”

“I do not sense him on Earth.” Wong states. Steve freezes, worry building again.

“But Y/n said he was alive, that I had to find him.”

“I do not sense him on Earth, that does not mean he’s dead. I believe Y/n might have had his location. Or at least Stephen did.”

“Then we need to wake Y/n up.”

Bruce looked up. “How do you suppose we do that.” Natasha steps forward, digging into her pocket pulling out smelling salts, snapping it right under your nose. You inhale it seconds later, and you get a rush, lungs drawing in more air on reflex in reaction, snapping you into consciousness.

You don’t have time to react or speak to the people all standing around you as the voices all come back speaking all at the same time.

_Steve! Steve!_

_Rocket!_

_Y/n!_

_I am Groot! I am Groot!!! I am Groot!_

_It is really cramped in here._

_I think so as well, oddly, there is no physical form here truly. I’ve not felt my nipples all day._

_Can you not talk about your nipples right now?_

_Y/n you need to focus on my voice! Block everyone else’s out._

_I am Groot._

_Groot, What did I tell you about using that kind of language? You shouldn’t say things like that, even in death._

_Somehow this isn’t what I thought death would be like._

_Would you all please shut up! We aren’t dead. Not yet, but if you overrun Y/n’s head with your incessant chatter, we will be._

_Geeze, who put the stick up his ass._

_Probably Thanos._

_Understandable._

_I am Groot._

_Y/n can you hear me?_

“Yes.” You respond.

_Good. Now focus on me. Let their voices drown out._

_Hey no, don’t do that! We deserve a voice! Why are you the only one allowed to help?_

_Because I saw the future and can actually help. What can you do?_

_I’ll have you know I give great advice and help all the time._

_I’m sure you do. We don’t need it._

“Are you alright?” That voice doesn’t come from inside your head, it takes you a moment to realize that, you look up at the man who speaks to you.

_Steve._ That’s a new voice, deeper, and a lot more focused much like Stephen's.

“Steve?” You repeat the name.

“Yes.” He nods, reaching his hand out to help you up. You take it, and don’t let go until the room stops spinning.  

_Tell him I’m here, please?_

“What’s your name?” You ask aloud, looking down and not at the people around you.

_It’s Bucky. Tell him Bucky says hi._

You look back up at Steve, who looks at you with something of confusion and skepticism. Which you realize everyone new you meet will probably have that look. Even with all the craziness happening, it might be a little hard for them to get past the whole voices in your head thing. Somehow, you’ve already stopped caring and accepted it.

“Bucky says hi.”


	3. Wait

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of your comments give me life, and keep me motivated to write! Thank you all so much. I'm so sorry I haven't responded individually, when I read them sometimes I smile and just don't know what to say! So instead I write faster, to give you longer and quicker updates!!

“Bucky?” Steve looks equal parts hopeful and sad as he steps closer to you. “You can hear him? You know where he is?”

 _“Now look, everyone’s off track. If we continue at this rate, you’ll only have enough time to have some of us get a chance to say our goodbyes.”_ Stephen’s voice cuts in, and you sigh.

“Well, what do you want me to do about it? Ignore everyone?” You ask, accidentally ignoring Steve’s question.

_“Yes, that works.”_

_“Be careful, your ego is taking up all the space in here.”_ You heard the voice earlier but you have yet to put a name to it. It’s a man, that much you can tell.

Stephen scoffs, and you’re sure if you could see there might be some crude gestures going on _. “I’m trying to save us all, ego or not, you all keep putting her off track and my ego will be the least of your worries as we all start to fade away.”_

 _“We already faded away.”_ The man mutters. _“But fine, I’m sure you’d like to think you know what you’re doing. I just want Rocket to know we’re here.”_

“Who’s Rocket?” You ask.

“That’d be me.” The raccoon says and you smile because it talks!

“Oh. Well, someone wanted you to know they were here.”

“Who? Groot?”

_“I am Groot.”_

_“Yeah, little buddy. It’s Rocket. Tell him we’re all in here. The Guardians of the Galaxy are all in here.”_

“The Guardians of the Galaxy? They’re all here.”

“Wait all of them?” Rocket asks, visibly shocked.

_“All except Gomorra. She died before Thanos wiped us all out.”_

“Not Gomora.” You say. “She was gone before that.” Rocket huffs sadly, turning away from the group.

 _“You need to tell them to find Thor. Every minute they waste here is another that causes problems in the long run.”_ Stephen reminds you.

“Steve was supposed to come alone.” You start. “You guys are supposed to be with Thor.”

“Thor’s alive?” Steve asks. “We couldn’t find him.”

 _“Oh, he’s alive,”_ Stephen says. _“There isn’t a single future where I saw him die. If anyone was going to survive, it’s him.”_

“Stephen says he’s alive, and that you three need to be with him.”

“Why?” Natasha asks. “Wouldn’t it be best if we helped you find Tony and fix everything?”

_“Tell them it will help if Thor is aware of what’s going on and is easily accessible at the right time. You’ll need him later, and without him, things won’t end well.”_

“Thor will help later. But you guys need to find him and tell him what’s going on. That way we can get to him with the time is right.”

“When the time is right?”

_“Tell them what I told you about the Time Stone and the future.”_

“Stephen saw the future, with the Time Stone. If things don’t happen as he saw it, then… they could all die, and we’ll lose again.”

“Where is he?”

_“They should start looking where they last saw him. In Wakanda.”_

“He said to look in Wakanda.”

Natasha was still unsure whether to trust you or not. After all, you were a serious unknown. As they’d all waited for the portal, they’d discussed the possibility of this being a trick from Thanos. Naturally, Steve was against the very idea. That Thanos had gotten what he wanted and wouldn’t come back to torment them all like this.

Everyone seemed to have the silent agreement, that Steve couldn’t be trusted to make the soundest decisions. Bruce and Natasha had lost the least in this. Apparently living a life with little ties to the world was a good thing. They cared about the Avengers, but they had loved each other. Bruce had cared a little more than Natasha, she was a spy, not heartless, but she knew how to separate feelings and work. Which she had to during the fight that broke up the Avengers. Bruce had spent two years off Earth altogether. Most of that time he spent stuck as the Hulk. Funny enough the Hulk chooses now to recede and hide it out.

Bruce blames himself and the Hulk for this partly. Because maybe, maybe if he had been better on the Asgardian ship, Thanos wouldn’t have gotten the Space Stone. Or that battle in New York. He might have been able to stop Strange from getting taken and the Time Stone would have been here, on Earth where they could have protected it more. Who knew what Tony, Peter, and Strange had to go through to lose that, and apparently the Guardians as well.  Then in Wakanda. Maybe if he could have held off Thanos for one more second. Or held back more of the enemies, maybe Shuri would have had more time to get rid of the Mind Stone.

So many maybes.

But if Strange saw the future, then there were no maybe’s. There was only what he knows works and he knows what doesn’t work. If Thor is alive like you say he is, and everyone else who faded is alive as well, then he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get them back.

He knows what failure feels like now, and he wants nothing more than to put an end to it.

“What are we supposed to do when we find him?” Bruce asks.

 _“They’ll know when they see him.”_ Stephen says, then comes that other voice again,

_“Wow, can you be any more cryptic?”_

Stephen sighs. _“There are some things that need to be a surprise. If they expect it, they won’t act on instinct doing what they need to, to survive. Like flinching, or running. Sometimes they’ll even need to get hurt, the future is a bloody path, paved with mistakes I need to let everyone make. But it all leads to one place, and that’s us winning. So just trust me.”_

“He says you’ll know when you see him.” You answer Bruce’s question.

Bruce turns to Rocket and Natasha, and they all seem to come to a silent agreement, with a series of nods, and they turn to Wong. Who then opens a portal back to Wakanda.

_“Tell them you’ll call when the time is right.”_

“I’ll call you when the time is right!” You say quickly as they step through. Bruce nods, and they wave and say their goodbyes to Steve. As the portal closes you turn back to him.

_“Would you tell that punk to stop looking so sad, we’re alive. He should be happy.”_

“Bucky says you should be happy hearing they’re alive, and to stop looking so sad. He also called you a punk.”

Steve does actually smile at that, which tugs something in your chest. “It’s nice to know he’s still there. I was worried I lost him forever.”

You don’t point out the redness that builds, or how eyes start to sparkle with a small line of tears building.  

_“It’s not that easy, he should know by now. I told him, ‘Till the end of the line. I meant it.”_

“He said you should know it’s not that easy, and something about ‘till the end of the line.”

“Yeah, I should have known.”

_“While this is heartwarming, I need you to stay on track.”_

You turn from Steve. “Tony?”

_“Yes. Get the backpack, and then you and Steve need to go somewhere.”_

You go back up the steps grabbing the backpack you dropped and listen to the address Stephen gives you.

“Come with me.” You say to Steve and head out.

_

The sky rumbles with thunder and lightning. A growing storm collecting right above their heads. A physical sign of all the emotions building up inside of Thor. He’s trying to be angry. At himself, at Thanos, at the Valkyrie, but mostly at Loki.

“You are truly a bastard, Brother.” He says, the anger in his voice fails, and it all comes out in whispers. Then he’s dropping the ax and pulling Loki into a bone-crushing hug. Mostly serving to prove that this isn’t an illusion or figment of imagination. He doesn’t loosen his grip, not even when Loki grunts in pain. In Thor’s eyes it serves him right, pretending to die yet another time.

Loki’s breath came out strained. “I know.” He tries laughing, but it comes out more like a cough.

When he does finally pull back, he only allows Loki away at an arm’s length, keeping hands on his shoulders. “How? How did you escape death this time?”

“I’ve had someone try to crush my neck before believe it or not, yet they’d never gotten so close to success as he did. The crunching you heard, was ice. I developed a way to build it under the skin as a protective layer.” He thinks it over. “The rest was theatrics and illusion.”

“Why stay away so long? I could’ve used your help. Earth could have used your help.”

“The explosion on our ship was not expected.” Loki explains quickly. “I didn’t have time heal myself enough to escape, or let you know I was truly alive. I was blown away and knocked unconscious by the force.”

“That’s when I picked him up.” Valkyrie steps in. “I was looking for survivors when I saw him drifting. Somehow, he hadn’t frozen. I wonder if that’s an Asgardian thing or a Frost Giant thing. Either way, it took a while to heal him up, and by the time we did and managed to get to Earth, people were crumbling to dust.”

Thor nods, and looks back to Loki. “That is the last time you die Brother. Real or fake.”

“We all must die at some point or another Thor.”

“Not you.” The grip on his shoulders tighten. And Thor finally feels filled with something other than rage. As it was the only thing keeping him going. “Not before me. Too much I have lost, and you are the only thing I’ve left. Do not leave me stranded with nothing to lose again. I fear I could not survive it.”

Loki nods. “I will do my best.”

_

“You can sleep if you’d like,” Steve says, the two of you are sitting on opposite sides of a small hallway in front of an open front door. Strange gave you the address and told you to leave the door open and keep an eye on the skies, although it could be a while. You’re not even sure what you’re supposed to be watching for, or how this helps you find Tony.

Your head is leaned back against the wall, and you’ve almost fallen asleep a few times. You’re sure you look the very definition of tired. But staying asleep was hard.

“I tried.” You shift again, uncrossing and stretching your legs across the length of the hallway. “It’s just too loud.”

He stills tilting his head, listening, and you smile.

“It’s the voices.” You explain. “I’m not sure you can hear them.”

Steve smiles and crawls across the hall scooting down next to you, and the heat coming from him is almost alarming. But you don’t mention it.

“I’ve got pretty good hearing, you never know.” He jokes. There’s a short pause before he continues. “So what’s it like? The voices?”

It takes a moment, and you think it over before explaining it as best you can.

“At first it was almost like someone had left a T.V on too loud. Eventually, when Stephen started speaking, everything else got quieter but was still there. When I talk to you, or there are other sounds going on, it’s easy to ignore. But now, when it’s quiet… it’s almost like I’m locked in a cafeteria filled with endless amounts of people and separate conversations. When Stephen or Bucky talk to me directly it’s like they’re speaking directly into my ear. Or are at least as close to you as you are to me right now.”

“Have you always been able to hear voices of the dead? Or well… just voices?”

“No.” You shake your head vehemently. “This is new for me. One-hundred percent.”

“So why can you? Did something happen?”

“Besides half of the population in the entire universe turning to dust? Nah, it’s been a pretty chill weekend otherwise.”  The bark of laughter Steve lets out almost startles you.

“I’m serious.” You giggle. “We were headed to get ice cream when-” Your sentence trails off when you realize what you were going to say.

About how you were bouncing your baby brother in your hands when your mother had called out your name. How you turned to see her fingers already missing, stretched reaching out for you. Then when you clutched your brother tighter and his body gave away with the wind.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asks, looking concerned.

“I was just...it all happened so fast. One minute everyone was there, the next they were all gone.”

“You lost someone?”

“Yeah.” You mumbled, not wanting to get into it. “Everyone did.”

“I suppose that’s true.” He nods, understanding somehow. Maybe because he lost someone close to him as well. You don’t dwell on those thoughts. You’re just too tired for that trip down depression lane. "You know, Bucky and I used to share an apartment after my Ma died. It was so long ago, yet sometimes I remember it like it just happened. Anyway, it was this ratty old place. Leaks, holes in the walls, rats, roaches. Anything you could think of. What I most remember is the sounds, you could hear it if someone dropped a pen two apartment’s over. It made it hard to sleep.” Now you’re starting to see him getting to a point. “Eventually, we realized, it wasn’t all noises that kept us from sleep. But unexpected ones, that constantly range in volume and pitch. So we would take turns helping each other fall asleep, just talking quietly to each other, and-” Steve chuckles. “And Bucky would even go as far to sing every night.”

 _“I told that punk to never tell anyone.”_ You’ve never seen Bucky, but somehow you imagine him rolling his eyes, and shaking his head along with the comment, which leaves you ending up biting back a smile.

“So what?” You ask. “You offering to sing to me?”

“If you’d like.” He shrugs. “It might help.”

 _“I wouldn’t suggest it. That man is tone deaf in every sense of the word.”_ You can’t even hold back the laughter at that.

“Bucky suggests otherwise.”

“Does he? He’s making fun of me, isn’t he? Did he call me tone deaf?”

You grin. “He might have mentioned it.”

“Have a cold one time and try to sing, never live it down.” He groaned, dropping his head in his hands.

_“Stevie always had a cold before the serum. It was his thing. It’s no excuse.”_

“How about a story?” You suggest instead. “No need to debate who is and who isn’t tone deaf that way.”

“A story?” Steve mulls it over, before he hums in agreement. “Hmm, I can work with that.”

 _“This should be interesting.”_ Bucky snorts.

“Where should I start?”

_“Preferably the beginning.”_

“Bucky suggests the beginning.” You snort. The conversation has already died down the chatter of voices in your mind. You once again lean your head on the wall, listening to Steve laugh and then begin his story. You pass out not long into the story.

All you hear is something about a scrawny little punk who kept picking fights with people bigger than him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I feel like I cut the Loki and Thor time short, so if you guys want me to beef up or focus more on a specific ship just lemmie know, because I basically ship everyone with everyone, and want to make sure I incorporate them in here. That includes shipping the reader with anyone as well, but you should know I don't intend on focusing the reader with anyone specific or having the reader in a relationship because of the story-line I have in mind. But I plan to make lots of room for fluff, so just let me know lol.


	4. The Calm Before The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel kind of nervous about this chapter, Steve and Tony meet, but I didn't want to make it all cakes and rainbows because they've got stuff to work through, but it ends on an okayish note-for them at least-.

Somehow your head has found its way to resting on Steve’s shoulder by the time you wake up. You’re jostled awake as he stands. You’re about to ask what’s going on when you feel it for yourself. The ground is shaking. You stand quickly pulling the backpack over your shoulders.

“Earthquake?” You ask.

“No.” Steve says, his eyes are pointed up at the sky and you follow his gaze. Suddenly you realize why Stephen told you to wait here. The two of you have a perfect view of something flying down from the sky, so fast and hard it’s causing the ground around its entry to rumble.

_“It’s Tony.”_ Stephen says, and you repeat the words to Steve. Which only deepens the concern in his gaze.

“That’s not good.” He states, as the strange looking aircraft of some sort breaks off in two pieces, one of them on fire the other spinning rapidly, toward the two of you. Honestly, you’re not sure which half was safer to be on.

You and Steve both take a step back when it hits a house out of sight, a large crash, and the rumble in the ground is so strong you almost lose your footing. Glass breaks in houses all around with violent shake.

You’re about to suggest going over to make sure he’s okay, but Steve’s already moving, almost breaking into a full sprint the moment he steps out of the doorway. You sigh at his speeds, knowing full well you won’t be able to catch up.

Going at your own speed, Steve’s already bent down, searching the crashed area and aircraft for signs of life. The street and houses around are in complete destruction. Luckily the aircraft looks alright. For such a crash landing.

“Tony! Tony where are you!” Steve yells, breaking a wall of the ship open, and stepping in. You stand out, the entire area looking unsafe. With Steve’s speed and strength, he should be fine. You? You’re not so durable, and prefer to be on the safe side.

Steve searches the aircraft, it’s similar to the ones he saw in Wakanda. Still, he searches though, calling for Tony, he stops when he hears a round of coughing under some fallen debris. Steve knocks it all away with haste, breathing a sigh of relief. Aside from the dust and blood. Tony looks so much different than he was when Steve last saw him years ago. But that might just be the blood and dust covering him.

“Tony?” Steve can’t even hold back his smile.

Tony coughs again and blinks his eyes open slowly. “Did I hit my head too hard? Or do you have a beard?”

Steve chuckles. “It’s real. Do you like it?”

“I dunno, ask me when I’m not dying.” Tony gestures down to his abdomen, where his cut has reopened and is bleeding heavily.

“Oh god,” Steve says, ripping his shirt open to get a better look. The wound goes through Tony’s side all the way.

“We need to stop the bleeding.” He says. He’s gotten some lessons in quick medical fix-ups from Natasha over the years. That fact that he heals the most on missions, means he’s most likely to be the only one able to take care of everyone else. But this seemed above those tiny lessons he got.

“Please tell me there are some doctors left.” Tony wheezes heavily between words.

“I’m not actually sure.” Steve presses his hands to the wound. “But I don’t think we have time to find out.” Steve carefully, picks up Tony, doing his best not to jostle his weight.

You’re waiting for them as they step out. The moment your eyes land on Tony’s face, you feel a sharp pain in the side of your head. It’s not as intense or painful as it was before when you met the small group all at the same time. Something about the more people one brings to the surface may be the more pain you’ll experience.

You drop to your knee until it passes, hearing a new voice. It’s so unfocused and panicked. It’s yelling for someone. An Aunt May, and Mr. Stark. You know Mr. Stark to be Tony, but not the other.

“Y/n you okay?” Steve asks stepping closer. You nod quickly and straighten yourself.

 “Yeah, just- something I’m going to have to deal with from now on. What’s wrong with him?” You point to Tony.

“He’s hurt, he needs a doctor.”

“I’m not sure how far the hospital is, or if anyone’s even going to be there when we get there.” You comment. It takes you wonder about how the rest of the population has been handling all of this.

_“Good thing I’m a doctor, and you’ve got everything you need._ ” Stephens' voice comes through, layering over the youngers yelling one.

“Oh, right!” You pull the backpack off yourself and open it. “Stephen told me to get all these medical supplies.” You explain.

_“Tell him to lie Tony down on his side.”_

“You have to lie Tony on his side.”

Steve nods, placing Tony down gently on the ground, and pushing him on his uninjured side. Tony groans in pain heavily, and you grimace at the gush of blood that pushes out.

“Oh god, that’s gross.” You say.

_“If you think that’s gross you’re not going to love what happens next.”_ Stephen starts.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

_“No, but you’re going to need to get your hands bloody.”_

_

The three-step thought and watch the portal close behind them.

“That was quick,” Shuri says from the back room, walking around the corner. She’s got a holographic map hovering just above her hands, and she’s changed her clothes. “I see Steve stayed behind. Is this good or bad news?”

“Not sure yet,” Natasha says. “But it seems we all have our own missions and parts to play.”

“Steve stayed behind to find Tony. We need to find Thor.” Bruce steps up. Shuri nods.

“Well, you’re in luck. I believe those storm clouds aren’t natural.”  She points out the broken window, careful of the glass, and in the distance, they follow the direction of her finger and see it. Three or four storm clouds, flashing with lighting and thunder. 

“It’s gotta be the big guy.” Rocket says, “Something’s probably wrong. We should see what’s up.”

“I agree.” Natasha knocks on her widow bites making sure they still work and smiles down at the electoral whirr they give in response. Rocket cocks his gun and smiles.

“I’m itching for a good fight.” They both begin walking off towards the door, but Bruce hesitates, how good will he be in a fight without the suit, and without the hulk?

“Something wrong Dr. Banner?”

“I’m just considering my usefulness.” He sighs, she smiles, closing the holographic screen and crossing her arms, thinking a moment before speaking.

“This is because of your Hulkness, or lack thereof?”

“Yeah.” He nods meekly.

“You say you spent two years with Thor in space correct?”

“I mean most of it was as the Hulk, and I was alone for a good potion, but yeah, I spent a lot of time with him.”

“And you fought Thanos head-on by yourself?”

“I lost.”

She nods. “One thing I’ve seen a lot here, watching kings and queens rise and fall, or anyone ever for that matter, is the fear of failure. Everyone’s had it at one point or another. Whether it’s taking a test in high school, or being able to fill your father's shoes on the throne as a ruler. Whether you have yourself and future riding on it, or you have an entire nation counting on you. Fear of failure is all the same. I imagine your Hulk never met a problem he couldn’t punch away. Never had someone depending on him and lost.”

“There are plenty of times where I- he did something wrong, hurt people, destroyed things.”

“That is different as well.  Being too strong and not strong enough are very different things, and they have different effects. You need to find a way, deep inside, to tell him this. Tell him it’s alright to fail, tell him it’s alright not to be the strongest person in the room. Tell him, that when you get knocked down, you get back up and try again. Tell him heroes don’t hide, they stand and fight. Even when it looks like they are losing they push back, because as long as someone has a heart. As long as someone is brave. As long as someone is strong. We will have a chance. True defeat, comes from inside, not from anywhere else.”

“Thanks.” He nods, and follows quickly behind the two, feeling slightly filled with more purpose.

_

Tony wakes up about three hours later. He’s feeling groggy, and there’s a feeling of cotton in his mouth. Something he’s only ever gotten from being drugged. So he makes an educated guess there. He moves to sit up, hissing lowly, at the pain in his side. He gently moves now, more aware of it, and throws a blanket off his torso. His chest bare, and he has a clear view of bruising and stitches along the lower side of his abdomen.

Tony has had stitches many times in his life, and he knows this is clearly the work of an amateur. No doubt it’s going to scar. He looks around, not recognizing the home he’s in. He vaguely remembers Steve, and someone else. But that might have been a hallucination. He hears the distant sound of voices and listens closely.

“I don’t think my hands will ever be clean enough.”

“You did well. I’ve seen Natasha do enough quick stitches to know you weren’t too bad.”

“My hands kept shaking.” You sigh. “What if I stabbed him or something and he bleeds out and dies?”

Steve chuckles. “I doubt you could have done that with that tiny needle. I was watching the whole time anyway, it was fine.”

“I hope you have standards higher than fine when it comes to my body and large open wounds,” Tony says from the stairwell. You both stand, Steve moves quickly, helping him down the rest of the steps and to a seat.

“You shouldn’t be up yet. You lost a lot of blood, and have a high risk of infection.”

“I think dehydration is a more pressing concern.” Tony murmurs with a cough punctuating his sentence and scratching his dry throat.

“I could have brought you water.” Steve rolls his eyes, moving around to the kitchen, looking for a bottled water, and when he doesn’t find any he gets some straight from the tap in a cup. “Here.”

Tony nods, then drinks the entire cup in a few gulps, and breaths heavily. “God that’s almost better than coffee.”

“Who knew it only took you losing a deeply concerning amount of blood to get you interested in the healthier options.”

Tony doesn’t look up from the empty glass. “There’s a difference between drinking to stay alive, and drinking to stay awake.”

“Sleeping regularly helps you stay awake.”

“Sounds counterintuitive.” He mumbles.

Steve looks at Tony fondly for a moment. It’s been so long Steve feels like he’s changed so much. He’s had this weight in his chest, of regret, wishing he could have done things differently. Then there was curiosity. Wishing to see how everything was with Tony and the Avengers he was building back up with new members. Natasha often sent reports of things she collected from friends. That term is used loosely, more like fellow spies and those who fear her enough to keep tabs on Tony for her.

But Tony was smart and private. Steve wasn’t able to truly learn anything of value.

In most ways, Tony looks like he hasn’t changed. But in other ways, he looks completely different. This was Tony Stark, the same man he knew two years ago, the same man he was on a team with. Two years later and Tony sounds and looks exactly as Steve remembers. 

“I’ve missed you, Tony,” Steve says, unable to find any other words.

Tony looks up at Steve hesitantly, and sighs. “I can’t do the soppy reuniting right now Cap… I- I’m not mentally prepared.”

You take that as your cue to leave, feeling some unfinished business and tension. You silently stand and hope you seem casual, but they don’t stop you and that’s good enough as you walk out the kitchen through the dining room and down the hall.

“Tony If we are going to fix this we need to be able to work together,” Steve says once you’re out of earshot.

“Fix this?” Tony chuckles humorlessly. “Fix what? The world or our friendship. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything that fixes either options. We’re kind of fucked.”

Steve then realizes the wariness in Tony’s eyes has nothing to do with his injuries and the crash.

“Tony, no, I know it looks bad, but it’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”

“There’s that can do spirit.” Tony stands, wincing slightly, favoring his side, using the counter to balance himself. Rejecting Steve’s silent offer to help. “We can’t fix this with willpower. We can’t fix it at all.”

“It’s not a can-do attitude Tony.” Steve sighs. He tries holding in his disappointment, this isn’t how he imagined meeting Tony again after all this time. But It’s understandable, this really isn’t the best of circumstances. “They’re alive.”

“What?” Something in Tony’s posture falters the walls he’s putting up to protect himself from Steve, they crack open just a little. “What did you just say?”

“Everyone who faded, they’re all alive. Stuck somewhere. Y/n can hear them, can speak to them.”

“No. That’s- that’s not possible Steve. They’re dead.” Tony shakes his head. That all sounds like a load of crazy mixed with denial. Tony isn’t sure what stage of grief he’s on. But at least he’s not pulling a sixth sense moment. Steve can see the disbelief written all over Tony’s face. Like he’s given up. Just like what everyone else did back in Wakanda. So ready to accept defeat.

But not him. Steve was right, there is a way. They are alive and he was going to make every single one of them believe if they don’t. There’s one definite thing he knows for sure, and it’s that he can’t win this on his own. He needs them. Stephen had said so, and Steve believed the guy. He also believed you. It might be a little of his can-do attitude. But hope and fighting when no one else is willing is kind of his thing. Even if Tony hates him, he wasn’t going to give up.

He steps closer to Tony, taking his hands, in his and waiting patiently for Tony to finally look up and meet his eyes again.

“Tony, I swear to you they aren’t. I know we haven’t talked in a long time, we aren’t on good terms, but this you can trust me on. They are out there. All of them. We’re going to get them back. Dr. Strange has a plan.”

“Dr. Strange? Did you speak to him? When?”

“Y/n speaks to him. But yeah, he’s there. He gave directions for cleaning and stitching you up.”

Tony shakes his head, playing the moment over again in his head. Peter, everyone. They all turned to ash. There’s no way they are still alive, that’s not how it works.

“How?” Tony asks despite himself. Despite wanting to be the voice of reason and maintain a level head, he can’t deny wishing. He wants to make good on his promise to Peter. That everything would be alright. He just wanted it all to be the way it was before.  

“I’m not sure. You can ask Stephen, he was specific that things need to be learned in the right order or it might mess things up. Something to do with the Time Stone and seeing the future.”

It hits Tony then. Strange wasn’t just trying to be extra with his last words, he was telling Tony. _This was the only way._ He said out of all outcomes there was only one where they won. It’s possible that Strange saw that they needed to lose in order to get to an eventual win.

Dammit. Now Tony wants this. He wants Steve to be right about this.

“Are you sure?” Tony asks, realizing they still haven’t let go of each other’s hands.

“I am.”

“Then I guess we do have to work together. But that doesn’t suddenly make us friends again.” Finally, he pulls his hands away.

Steve smiles despite the loss of contact. “Fine, we can work towards that. But I think you missed me.”

“If I missed you I would have called.” Tony rolls his eyes, settling back into the chair.

“If you didn’t you would have thrown the phone away. Instead, you had it on you.” Bruce had explained how he got the phone from Tony and managed to call them. So, Steve knows they weren’t in the tower when Tony realized they needed to call Steve so Tony had to have been walking around with the phone on him. 

Tony pauses. “Something my mother taught me. Don’t burn bridges you may one day need to walk across.” 

Steve considers, maybe for a moment. Instead of wanting to call. Tony might have been wanting Steve to call instead. It would explain a lot. Like the radio silence for the last two years. Steve had considered calling a few times. Every time he did, he worried about what would happen when he did.

He worried if Tony would just answer and tell him to shove off. Or maybe the chance Tony wouldn’t answer and the phone would be out of service. Steve just thought Tony needed more time. It was pretty bad. Rhody losing most of the function in his legs, Tony having to go to physical therapy himself after Steve jammed his shield into Tony’s chest.

That’s what Steve regretted the most. He didn’t like that they fought, no. But that happens sometimes. People disagree and there are arguments, no relationship, friendship or team is perfect. Not to mention it wasn’t just some team dispute, it was Bucky, being framed for terrorism, it was the accords trying to control all enhanced people everywhere. It was Zemo trying to pull the Avengers apart.

What Steve regretted the most. Was letting it go too far. People almost died. People were permanently injured. That’s the kind of thing that falls way too close to the unforgivable line. Reasons and motives aside it shouldn’t have gotten that far. As a leader, as someone who people looked to Steve should have tried to find a peaceful way to resolve it. Hell, Tony was trying to find the peaceful way. Just bring everyone in, and work on it back at the Tower on their own terms.

Tempers were high, and Steve’s only thought was protecting Bucky. So much so that his team split in half.

Who knows, the accords might have worked, they might have flopped and been rejected by literally every other enhanced or alien being in the universe and everything could have been fine. No one knows, because the Accords didn’t even matter, they weren’t Steve’s main focus. It was for Bucky, he fought for Bucky.

And before anyone says anything. Bucky was worth it. He was worth fighting, and becoming a fugitive. Steve would never regret sticking up to save his best friend. But that doesn’t make him blind to the cost.

The cost being this is the first time he’s been on American soil in two years. The cost being he hasn’t truly had a home or a real place to settle down because he was a fugitive. The cost being Tony Stark sitting right in front of his face saying they can’t be friends, when not two years ago Steve was thinking of it maybe being more.

“Well, I’m happy you didn’t burn it.”  Steve say finally.

“Me too,” Tony whispers. There’s a moment of silence before Tony huffs, clapping his hands. “Okay, so what next? Isn’t there a universe we gotta save or something? How do we have time for a heart to heart?”

Steve chuckles. “Yeah, believe it or not, there has been a whole lot of waiting.”

“Like the calm before the storm?”

“Or you know, just, the calm _after_ the storm? We just fought and lost to Thanos. Maybe the universe is giving us a break.”

Tony laughs. “That was Thanos’ grand plan. Wipe out half the population and all our problems fly away. The only problem with that is there is no perfect balance. The world is shitty, and it will be when there are half as many people in it. Maybe he’ll just figure that out and say, ‘ _oops my bad_?’”

“Not likely.”

“So something bad is about to happen.”

“Don’t say that you’ll jinx it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Tony chuckles and then looks around. “Hey, where’d your friend go?”

Steve looks around too and listens carefully. “I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want this chapter to read as team-cap, or team-Iron man. It was a mostly both sides have things to make up for situation, but Tony just needs a little more time to move past it, which he's already starting to do, whether he wants to or not. 
> 
> Also, just for the record- they totally jinxed it. Bad things happen in the next chapter! 
> 
> But everything will work out in the end. 
> 
> One of the many ways i'm nicer than the Russo brothers- and everyone at marvel who helped create our shared heartbreak.


	5. Six Legs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to leave it on a cliff hanger, but then I realized I was taking forever to write this chapter and other chapters of other things and figured posting would be better. I always write faster with feedback, so the longer I wait the longer it takes me to get things done. 
> 
> So sorry about that lol.

Steve and Tony left the townhouse to find after about twenty minutes once they realized you were gone. At first, it was clear you were just giving them space, but Tony was anxious for answers from Stephen himself, and for proof, which he could only get through you apparently. Steve was content to just wait, maybe try and catch up with Tony some more. But that seemed to be the very opposite of what Tony was up for, understandably, there were more important things going on, and from the sound of it, Stephen said there was a sort of time limit to all of this.

“Alright Capcicle, let’s find the ghost whisperer.”

“The what?”

“It’s a sho- you know what… never mind. Just- lead the way.” Tony shakes his head with a sigh. 

Steve rolled his eyes. “Maybe you should stay, I don’t want you to rip your stitches, or get infected.”

“I’ll be fine. If we miraculously get into a fight or have to do something more physically straining than walking, I’ll let you handle it by yourself.”

That was good enough for Steve.

_

You were in a lot of trouble, and danger. Mortal danger by the feel of it.

You breathe heavily, gasping every few breaths or so because there wasn’t enough oxygen in this cramped space. But moving wasn’t an option. You’re not willing to make that mistake, you value your life, but now it’s even more important with a kid sitting in your lap.

 “W-where is it?” You try to breathe out, your head feels heavy, all of you feels heavy honestly. Your heart is beating way to fast, and your skin feels so cold.

_“It’s walking down the street. Soon it will pass the building, I’ll let you know when it’s safe to make noise.”_

You nod, taking the moment to look at the kid. He can’t be over five, he’s got a small cut on his chin, and he’s covered in dirt. Other than that, he seems fine. You inspect his legs just to be sure and sigh soundlessly when you realize he’s got no shoes on. That’s going to make it harder for him to run if you need to. Which you’re pretty sure he’s going to need to at some point.

You’re eyes catch the state of your arm and you bite your lip to quiet any noises you might make. As you press the torn flesh. There’s a spiral of large jagged cuts that loop the length of your entire right arm, starting at your palm and looping around to your shoulder. Your shirt sleeve is hanging loosely by a few threads but is torn horribly too.

It’s bleeding badly. You know the smart move is to wrap it up in some kind of cloth to try and control the bleeding. But moving isn’t an option right now. Not with the thing that did this to you lurking right out in the middle of the street.

The worst part is that you don’t even know what it is.

_“You got to keep him safe, please keep him safe.”_ It’s the boy’s father, at least you’re assuming so. The pain had shot in your head the moment you laid eyes on him. It’s been begging you to keep him safe ever since.

“Okay.” You whisper. “I will.”

You pull the boy tighter to you, hugging him, trying to blink away tears in your eyes. This whole thing is messed up. All you did was go for a walk, and now you’re being hunted by a creature you’ve never seen before.

It all happened a few minutes after you’d left the house. You just wanted some fresh air and to give the two some space to work out whatever tension you were sensing between them was. You had walked in the direction of the crashed ship. Not that half Tony had been in though, the other one.

You’d only made it about six blocks before you saw something strange. It was a shoe, right in the middle of the street. Why it was so strange you didn’t know at first. After all, a lot of things were abandoned and left behind. There were several cars still on and engines running.

But not clothes. Everyone who faded took their clothing with them. Some things stayed, like phones and keys, metals really. But clothing faded. So, for there to be one lonely shoe on the road, it really stood out. You’d walked over to it, bent to pick it up, and that’s when you saw the blood. There was a light trail of it as if someone was dragged. Your eyes follow the trail and where it ends isn’t far, just down an alleyway a few feet from you.

Curiosity made you move toward it, and fear made you do it silently.

Your blood runs cold when your eyes land on the creature tearing a woman apart.

It had long claws, six legs, three on each side. Its entire frame reminded you of some crocodile hybrid of some sort. It stood higher from the ground and it’s got long claws. It didn’t have a jaw like a crocodile it’s face flatter less snout, but probably the same amount of teeth.

The woman was dead, long dead hopefully so she didn’t have to suffer too much pain. One of her legs is missing and blood paints the whole area. You took a step back, moving silently. A plan formed immediately in your head. Get away and call animal control or the police, if there was anyone left that could handle it. If not then you’d tell Steve he might have been able to handle it.

A scream ruined your inner plan.

A kid had seen you from down the road, scared and alone he went to the first person he’d seen in hours. You didn’t notice him, eyes trained on the dead woman and creature. The boy's eyes went to it as soon as it was in view. He screamed, the creature snapped its head up looking right at the boy and charged without hesitation.

Your feet had begun moving before you consciously decided to. The boy was only a few steps from you, the creature had several feet of distance, so you got the boy well before the creature had crossed half the distance. You grew more concerned though when the creature suddenly stopped eyeing you and the boy carefully.

You were trying to think which tactic would work, staying still, playing dead, or intimidation, yelling-roaring making yourself seem the bigger predator.

Before you could decide the creature shot its tongue out, much like a frog, crossing the entire distance between you and wrapping in a spiral loop around your entire right arm. Then sharp pricks that lined the tongue, dug deeply into your skin. It tugged back, pulling you a few inches, and your arm bleeds as the pricks pulled tearing your skin open deep.

  In that moment, of intense pain, something cleared in your mind. The endless chatter of voices, some calling out, hearing you in pain, others still chattering amongst themselves, it all silenced for a handful of seconds, and there was one clear voice that spoke. Asking you a question.

_“What does sacrifice mean to you?”_

You didn’t answer. How could you with all the screaming and pain.  But something happened in the palm of your hand, a bright light that burned hot. The creature had screamed at that. Unhooking its tongue from your arm and running as if you’d hurt it somehow. You looked at your palm in confusion light fading immediately, and Stephens' voice came back along with all the others in the background.

_“Run and hide it will come back.”_

You didn’t hesitate to listen, reaching for the boy and picking him up with your uninjured hand you ran into the nearest store you could find, closing the door behind you and hiding under the counter.

You’re not sure how great that creature is at hearing, but you’re not risking it by speaking anymore. You put a finger to your lips signaling the kid not to speak and he nods.

Now all you had to do was wait for Stephen to tell you-you're safe. Hopefully, that will be before you die of blood loss.

_

“So, your plan is that you don’t have a plan?” Natasha asks, arms crossed, eyebrows lifted.

“I do have a plan. Find Thanos, then kill him.” Thor smiles brightly as if it’s the best plan he’s ever thought of.

“cause that worked so well the last time.” Rocket scoffs, sitting on the ground taking his gun apart and cleaning it.

“I wounded him.” Thor presses on. “He’s hurt, wherever he is, killing him shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Besides, I have all of you to help.” He gestures to the group of them as if them being around only gives him confidence.

“I’m not helping you on a suicide mission. I don’t care what Strange said.” Natasha says shaking her head.

“I agree.” Valkyrie stands. “Your plan is shit. You don’t know where he is, or how injured he is, and you’re forgetting he’s got the stones, he doesn’t need to be at full strength, they’ll do all the work for him.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Loki asks.

“She said we’ll know what to do when we see him.” Bruce murmurs. Looking at them all for a moment before stepping back, he needs to see the whole picture. Maybe it was more literal. They all stood in front of Valkyrie’s crashed ship. Something must have happened during the landing, or before that, he doesn’t care, but that’s it. “How many people can your ship hold?”

“Before it was damaged? I’d say about twenty.” She shrugs.

“We need to fix the ship.”

“The ship?” Rocket asks, “What are we going to need that for?”

“Y/n said that they’ll call us when they need us, what if we’re supposed to give them a ride to Thanos. Think about it. Thor is the only one with a weapon that can kill Thanos, but he has no way to get to Thanos or find him. I’m betting Strange knows where Thanos is.”

Natasha nods. “Sounds like a plan I could get behind. Good thing we’re in Wakanda. They’ve probably got everything we need.”

_

“Does y/n normally wander off in times of crisis like this?” Tony asks, they’ve kind of been looking for you almost twenty minutes now. Steve says he’s got no idea where you would’ve went but he’s sure you wouldn’t have gone far.

“I wouldn’t know. I met them a few hours ago.”

“The fate of the universe is in the hands of a stranger.” Tony chuckles.

“Everyone is a stranger to someone.”

“I guess that’s true.” Tony sighs, stopping a moment and leaning against the building next to them, clutching the bandages over his stitches. They ache like hell, but he’s happy they haven’t reopened yet. “Maybe you should go ahead. Come back when you’ve got Y/n.”

“And leave you to wander in a time of crisis. Seems irresponsible.” Steve smiles, and Tony rolls his eyes. “I could carry you if you’re tired.”

“Not on your life,” Tony warns. “Just give me a second, I’ll be fine.”

He turns his head to look down the street. He’s never seen New York so empty. So much for the city that never sleeps.

“So, uh, who all… died?” He almost didn’t want to ask, but the need to know reigned supreme.

“They’re not dead.” Steve corrects immediately. “I haven’t exactly done a count but for the moment. T’Challa, Sam, Bucky, a tree thing named Groot, Wanda, and Vision… Vision was before Thanos snapped his fingers… so, that might be permanent.”

 Tony nods, looking to the ground and clearing his throat. Then there was that press smile, schooling his face. It almost hurt Steve more than seeing Tony sad would have. Another testament to how wrong things were between them.

“Guess we’ve got no kind of count on civilians either?”

“Not a single clue. But they might be working on that in Wakanda. Everyone was talking about moving forward and giving up.”

“But not you. Forever standing out and shining bright aren’t you Cap.”

“I guess that’s something about me I hope never changes.”

“Yeah sure. What’s this new look all about anyway?” Tony gestures mainly to the hair and beard. “You forget to pack your razor when you went on the run?”

“You could say I lost the motivation. Stopped caring about my image and looks. I guess that happens when you work in the shadows.”

“If you’re telling me your goal was to stop looking attractive, or… heroic, or however you see yourself, I’m going to say you failed miserably.”

“So, you do like it!” Steve points, smile breaking out on his face, and Tony has to look away not bothering to hold back his laugh.

“I do. It’s a real upgrade.”

Steve’s just about to ask what exactly he means by that when he pauses. He can hear something. A crying. He listens closely, turning away from Tony and focuses.

“Wake up!” There’s a sob and some heavy sniffling. “Wake up!” It’s a boy, probably young from the sound of his voice.

“What is it?” Tony asks, confused.

“Someone’s crying.”

Then he hears the crash and breaking of glass and a high-pitched scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's voice that was in the readers head, and what was the light coming out of their hand? And why didn't Stephen warn them about it before they kept walking? 
> 
> Also where the heck did that creature come from?
> 
> All of the clues to how this ends is starting to get drizzled in. I wonder if some of you are going to be able to guess it before it happens.


	6. Gamora

All her life Gamora had to fight for her life. At first, it was starvation and theft. Her planet was crowded and starved. Her mother had stolen fruit that fateful morning. She remembered her mother waking her up, pound smile on her face, you would think stealing would give someone shame, but the joy of feeding your child seemed to overtake it. Gamora hadn’t taken the first bite when the screaming had begun. People pulled from their homes and lined up. Two groups told to pick a side or one would be chosen for them.

That was the first time she met Thanos, the man who would raise her to be a warrior, a fighter, and expect it to be love, expect him to call her father.

Gamora accepted her fate for many years, but one thing she always knew, this wasn’t how her life was supposed to be. But then again, things rarely end up how you want them too.

So, all her life, she’s been fighting death one way or another.

Never did she think that gravity would be what finally won. 

For a moment in time, she’d thought her death would be at Peter’s hand. Somehow that was a comforting form of death. He would free her from the never-ending fight against death, helping her welcome it as so many did before her. Just like her mother. Heaven wasn’t something she believed in, nor did she believe in hell. In her mind, there was just a place… no particular landscape, where all the dead go, good and bad, everyone who’s ever died goes there and they stay there in that place, peacefully for the rest of eternity.

When her head connected with the ground, shattering her skull, and she woke up somewhere else, the pain is gone, the fear is gone, she just knew that peaceful place isn’t where she ended up.

Emotions gone as well. Somehow, she felt empty, yet infinitely full all in the same moment.

There was a clearness in her mind and that’s when she realized what happened. She realized that she didn’t die for the Soul Stone, she died to become it. She had no physical form, even though she looked down at herself, and seemed to have the image of one. This was… nothing, something she used to hold onto what she once was. Now she was energy really, light, power, virtue, a soul, all held inside a single stone that now makes up her entire being.

And with that new power, that new clearness, she could feel it, them, the other infinity stones. Only two left, but she could sense how close she was to one of them. The Time Stone. It was in use, she could feel it. A vibration in her body. She closed her eyes and focused.

Then her mind was spinning, seeing all at once. Just as someone else was. A man. Strange they called him. He was looking through time. But why? Then she saw it, the last possible future. Thanos dead and everyone saved.

But there were gaps the man did not notice. Gaps she could only see. Why? A question she asked herself and the answer flowed through her. She knows could see how it all ended, and she only now had to let everyone play their parts until the moment was right.

Then she’d call out to the one named, Y/n, making sure they were ready for what would be asked of them when the time came.

_ 

Thanos snapped his finger and she felt the power in her body bubble up like boiling water right before she felt it spread in all directions across the universe. At that moment she knew, that it was now or never. She directed Thanos’ power, one last strain of rebellion and pulled all that energy back inside of her, taking all the souls of those who Thanos erased and pulling them inside the Soul Stone.

The first to arrive was the one the called Bucky. She’d asked him a question, but he didn’t answer, he didn’t acknowledge her. As the others came, she realized it wasn’t rudeness, but they truly couldn’t see her. Or rather all they could see was her. Every apparition in the stone, the wooden gazebo, and the shallow lake that went along endlessly in a skyless landscape was a part of her.

She was spread thin by billions of atoms creating this for them, for herself. So, when it came to the body she clung to, they couldn’t see it. They couldn’t hear the words she spoke. All she could do was silently help Stephen reach your mind, and speak to you, and when the moment was right, she asked you a very important question.

_“What does sacrifice mean to you?”_

She hadn’t expected an answer, not verbally anyway. She’d gotten what she wanted. The things that flashed before your mind in a moment of searing pain, with fear clouding your mind just as much as your nerves were firing signals of pain straight to your brain. The thoughts the word sacrifice brought to your mind. She’d seen it using the power of the Mind Stone.

She saw the web of thoughts, memories, and impressions you’d ever had and she combined them all at that moment to get your silent answer, and she smiled, because the answer you gave was a good one, even if you didn’t know it. 

-

“Stark Tower would be a great place to get everyone settled.”

“Stark Tower?”

“Oh, I had it changed back once the Avengers broke up. You didn’t know that?”

“No, I didn’t.” Steve shakes his head, wondering how in all her reports, Natasha never brought that up. She probably thought it wasn’t important and knew it would only pour salt to the wound. She was intuitive like that.

“Well, I changed it a lot too.” Tony shrugs. “It’s got a bunch of new floors. Lots of food. I mean I’ve been having tours, there are a cafeteria and a pool. There’s a lot of space, and FRIDAY has access and control over every single room and floor. She’d be perfect to handle things, she can keep people safe, she’s got like a bazillion safety protocols she could lock people out, or lock people in if need be, keep fights from breaking out. All the fire safety you could think of, and she could drain the pool in two minutes if someone starts drowning.”

“Sounds very through,” Steve says carefully, honestly, it sounds like someone’s seriously paranoid or worried something bad was going to happen. Last time Tony did that, there was Ultron.

“When you’ve got a thousand teenagers and kids coming in and out of the tower every day, safety protocols are your new best friend.” Tony chuckles. Pepper had said something along those same lines when he handed her two-hundred pages worth of updated information and security codes. After getting past the shock of the upgraded system she calmed down and was on board. Accidents happen all the time, and being this prepared prevents them, and also is great for avoiding lawsuits.

“Why did you have so many kids going through the tower?” Something else Natasha hadn’t mentioned. 

“It’s part of getting the new team some recognition, and easing bad feelings and press.”

“What new team?”

“Well… Ross and the rest of the bunch honestly weren’t comfortable not having an Avengers team on call to save the world and such, which is silly considering how hard they wanted to control or lock everyone up. So, once you were gone I had to regain control of the narrative. Get the public to trust powered people again, while I also began to contact some powered people and see if they wanted to join.”

“So, you were going to reform the Avengers and not even call us?” Steve sat forward in his chair, shoulders squaring.

“It’s called ‘New Avengers’ for a reason, they wanted new people.”

“You were on the team!” Steve points out, voice a little more defensive than he intended.

“Well I signed the damn Accords so of course, I was on it!” Tony takes a deep breath. “For the first time ever, the government likes me more than they do you. How’s it feel to be the rebellious problematic one?”

“I don’t know. How’s it feel to be one of the sheep following shepherd?” 

“Touché.” Tony chuckles. The kid on the couch shifts restlessly and beings crying. “I’ll get the juice boxes.”

“You sure giving him so much sugar will help?”

“It’s a temporary fix until we get someone else to watch him. Listen, I’m on child duty, you’re on the ghost whisperer. Go make sure Y/n’s still breathing.”

Steve sighs, heading up the stairs to the bedroom where’d you both left Tony to rest not hours ago. Now you’re in his place, almost same problem. Blood loss. The creature had managed to cut ulnar artery in three different places. Causing you to bleed out quickly. 

When Steve had headed toward the crash he told Tony to stay put while he ran straight toward the cause. It was the creature, it’d heard the boys cries and broke straight through the glass to get inside the store. The boy had begun throwing books and anything else he could reach it. At first, the creature had tried to eat one of the books, the only reason Steve had time to make it before it realized that books weren’t it’s favorite meal choice.

It’d turned and shot its tongue at Steve, although not expecting it, he was quick, stepping back, and catching the tongue in his hand regretting it as the pricks dug in and tore. Instead of letting go, or allowing himself to be pulled. He yanked hard.

It was painful, and gross, as the tongue snapped and pulled from the creature’s mouth. The howl it let out was deafening and it ran past Steve and out of the store, no doubt to curl up and die from blood loss. Much like you, he realized when he’d taken in the scene before him.

You were unconscious and the boy was trying to hide behind you as much as physically possible with you lying unmoving flat on the ground. Steve moved for you instantly, reaching for your arm, thoughts immediately on stopping the bleeding.

That’s when a book hits him square in the face. He blinks a few times before he smiles. Rising his hands slowly. “I’m just trying to help. No need to attack.” The boy squints at Steve, another book in his hand ready for throwing as he’s probably doing his best trying to level a glare.

“Why don’t you help me. Grab some of those shirts over there?” He points to a clothing rack just behind the kid. The kid hesitated then looked at you and Steve a moment before getting up and grabbing as many shirts as his arms could carry.

“Thanks.” Steve smiles, taking them, and carefully wrapping them around the entire length of your arm, making sure they were secure and cut off the bleeding. He knew it wouldn’t last long. He needed to get you out of there. Probably back to the rest of the medical supplies at the house. “Okay, we got to move. Follow me okay?” Steve said as he picked you up. The kid nodded and grabbed onto Steve’s shirt for extra measure to keep him close. Steve noted the lack of shoes and made sure to keep an eye out for the broken glass.

When they got back to Tony there was a comment about picking up stragglers, and Steve chuckled. Tony then held the kid’s hand considering he wasn’t really in a good condition to be carrying anyone right now. Once they got back to the house, Steve immediately did his best to give you stitches, which was hard without Stephen directing his every move, and your skin was so torn in such jagged uneven cuts, not to mention deep. His fingers kept slipping with all the blood that was gushing. After about an hour of nonstop stitching, he finally came downstairs to find Tony had talked the kid into a nap, after feeding him some mac and cheese.

That’s when they had started talking about Stark tower.

Steve bent by the bed and gently pulled the bandages off. They were very bloody. He’d done his best to clean you up, but the sheet and your shirt were covered in blood. The smell of iron was strong.

“I’d feel a lot better if you woke up right about now.” He says, placing the bandage back on securely. But you don’t move an inch. He brings his fingers up to your neck and takes your pulse. Your heart is beating faster than usual but that’s just because of blood loss. “You’re supposed to tell us what to do next.” That part he whispers. Every bit of hope he has left is riding on you, and you’re a connection to everyone they lost. Without it… there may be nothing left to save.

_

Thanos sat perched on a dusty hill, looking down at Titan. Using the reality stone to overlay it with an image of all it once was. He’d finally done it. Finally saved the world like he’d failed to save his. They’d hate him for a while. Everyone who’d lost their loved ones. They’d cry, mourn, even swear vengeance. In time they’ll see how right he was.

He looks down at the gauntlet. It’s well worn, burned and curled by the power of the stones. It’s still mostly intact, not that he’s worried. He’s won. There is no more use for it. It is simply time for the universe to thrive in the balance he’s created.

The Soul Stone shines brightly for a moment, a slight whine coming from within, and it goes out just as quickly as it came. He lifts the gauntlet up to his face, inspecting the stone curiously. There is much he knows about the Infinity Stones, he probably knows more than anyone alive in the entire universe, but he does not know all. He looks up to the sky and breathes deeply. Ignoring the twinge of guilt in the back of his mind as his thoughts are drawn to Gamora.


	7. It's Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not happy with how this chapter turned out for some reason, it just feels dry or something idk. But it was a necessary evil because next chapter we fight the purple thumb. I don't know if i'll make it one large chapter or break it up into two, but the next chapter may end up being the last one.

“And… that’s the last piece. I think we’re all set.” Valkyrie declares, stepping back to look at her ship. “Beautiful.” She murmurs. Patting the exterior gently as if it were a kitten. “All we need to do is fuel her up, and we’ll be ready to go.”

“Shuri said she’d had someone bring it over soon.” Bruce reminds from the side.

“So, what do we do now?” Rocket asks, picking up blades of grass and squeezing them between his fingers. “I’m not exactly good at sitting on my hands and waiting for the action.”

“We could help clean up around here,” Natasha suggests, she’s already started while the others worked on the ship. Shuri’s already done so much, rebuilding the barrier around Wakanda where it’s damaged, and they’ve gone around doing a death count and missing count. Natasha even took the time to inform Okoye about you and what’s going on back in New York. The bit of hope in her eyes flashed only for a moment before she gave a more guarded stance. Now knowing the feeling of defeat no one seems ready to put their hopes and dreams all in again.

Rocket looks around and nods. “I guess I could go around collecting some of that alien tech, for all we know it could come in handy if we do make it to Thanos again. I’m really going to give that piece of shit all I can.” He gripped his gun tighter and began walking off. Scouring the grass for weapons and tech.

Bruce sighs. “I’m going to take a walk, help on the look-out for survivors who may be injured.”

Natasha almost offers to go with him, but she can see something else is on his mind, he may really just want some alone time.

Thor sits in the grass with Loki, going over strategy and plotting the death of Thanos once they find him. “You’re sure you pierced him in the chest?” Loki asks.

“Yes, he staggered, and he bled.” Thor holds up the ax and there’s blood on it. Loki looks it over and nods.

“That means this weapon is the only thing I’ve seen or known to hurt him. If this is the case, then this is something he will be on the lookout for. You must think before you act. His first move may be to separate you from your ax.”

“I won’t let him get the chance.”

“No.” Loki corrects. _“We_ won’t let him get the chance.”

_

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit.” Tony curses loudly, stomping around the living room with a frantic pace.

“Tony, you shouldn’t use language like that around the kid,” Steve called from the bathroom where he’d been washing the blood off his shirt.

“I’m not sure this is going to make you angrier or not, but I lost the kid.” Tony can hear the sound of porcelain breaking as Steve slams his shirt back into the water so fast it breaks the sink. Steve just leaves it and darts into the living room.

“What do you mean you lost the kid!?”

“He was here thirty seconds ago.” Tony waves his hands confused. The couch cushions are lifted from the couch, and the closet door is wide open. “He asked for another cookie, I came back and he was gone.”

“And you looked for him inside of the couch?”

“He’s tiny… I thought he might have fallen in?” Tony shrugs, looking around the room again. Steve looks down the hallway at the door. It’s closed, and he hadn’t heard anyone open it. But he also didn’t hear the kid get up from the couch so he could be anywhere. 

Steve rolls his eyes. “I’ll go look outside.”

_

You woke up to pain as the mattress beneath you dipped heavily to one side. Groaning deeply, you open your eyes lifting the pained appendage. Seeing the bandages, you know you’re safe. Back in the house. Steve or Tony must have found you and brought you back. You look over to the source of movement and find tiny brown eyes looking down at you.

“Hello.” You smile up at the boy.

“Hi.” He whispers back, curling up against the headboard of the bed, he’s got a handful of cookies in his hands and he gives one to you.

“Thanks.” You chuckle taking it with your uninjured hand. You hesitantly take a bite, you’re more thirsty than hungry, but the cookie will do for now.

You look him over, he still doesn’t have any shoes, but he’s not hurt anywhere, and the cookies tell you he’s had food so you aren’t worried about that. “What’s your name?”

“Adam.” He mumbles around a cookie, crumbs flying everywhere.

“ _Y/n._ ” Stephens voices come through, you turn your head and answer him.

“Yes?” 

_“It’s good you’re up. You’re just in time, they’re ready for you.”_

“Who?”

“ _The others. You’ll all be ready to go in a little while. Just enough time for you to drop the boy off at the tower.”_

“The tower?”

“ _Tony will explain. You should hurry though, they are panicking.”_

You sit up confused but move anyway. Your body tired, and arm aching with pain on every tiny movement, but you don’t stop. Holding out your good arm to Adam who takes it and climbs off the bed with you. The steps only make the pain worse, and you hiss once you finally get down that last step, you’re having a hard time deciding what position to keep your in is best.

Tony walks down the hall just as you do, and he sighs relieved. “Thank goodness. I thought I’d managed to screw things up with another kid.”

“Another kid?” You ask, then there’s that voice again.

_“Mr. Stark!”_

“Forget about it.” Tony shrugs. “I guess I should go get Steve.”

_“No. Mr. Stark, tell him I’m here.”_

“Uh, wait.” You start, “Someone wants to talk to you.”

“Who? Strange? Because I’d like to talk to that bastard too, ask him why everyone dying was the ‘only way’.”

_“No, it’s me, Peter. Peter Parker.”_

“It’s Peter Parker?”

Tony freezes. “What?”

“He keeps calling you Mr. Stark.” You shrug, “He told me to ask you to wait.”

_“Just tell him I don’t want him to worry. I’m fine. That I’m sorry I got so scared and made him feel bad. It didn’t even hurt, and I’m not alone, there are all these other people here. I just don’t want him to feel bad.”_

“He says, that he’s fine, and doesn’t want you to worry. He’s sorry he was scared and made you feel bad. That it didn’t hurt… I don’t know he’s kind of talking really fast.” You shrug. 

“So, you really can hear them,” Tony says after a few seconds and you nod.

“Yeah. It’s hard to navigate through. They have to bring themselves to the surface. I can’t do that.” You look down at Adam and remember what Strange said. “Uh, Stephen said that we need to take Adam to the tower? I have no idea what that means though.”

“Stark Tower. My tower. Steve and I were thinking that it might be safer to have civilians gather there, there’s plenty of food and water. Lots of room too.”

“I think we have to hurry.” You say. Stephen wasn’t rushing you, but there’s this feeling, something in the back of your mind pulling you to get this done quickly and move onto the next step. Not that you’re sure what exactly the next step is.

“Yeah sure. Let’s get Steve and you can help me grill Strange on the way.”

You smile. “Okay.”

_

Bruce looks down at his reflection in the water and sighed. Still, he could feel the hulk holding back. God, this was all backwards. Usually, he’d have to hold the big guy back. Meditating, drinking that disgusting tea. The whole nine yards. But now, the moment Bruce needed him, the moment everyone needed him everything had to change.

But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it?

Everyone was depending on him. Even people who didn’t really know a danger was coming. They were depending on him. Half the entire universe. Billions, and billions of people. All wiped out.

Bruce left earth so he could help. He left so he could stop destroying things.  So, people would praise him instead of stop being the monster.

That’s why he was happy to be the grandmasters champion. People roared the Hulks name. They had flags, posters, and face paint. They threw parades.

Who would throw parades for the Hulk now? Half of those who cheered his name is gone, and the rest, the rest know how he failed, how he went toe to toe with Thanos and lost.

That made him nothing. No longer monster, no longer champion.

What was he if he wasn’t any of those things?

He sighs, looking up at the sky. What was he if he wasn’t the hulk? What were they together? What were they without each other?

_

“What I don’t understand, is why you?” Tony says finally. You’d found Steve and the four of you began walking to Stark Tower, it wasn’t far, you could already see it in the distance when you look up. It’s taller than most of the other buildings around it.

“I don’t know either.” You flex your fingers as your wounds itch in your hand and up your arm. The painkillers you took are working heavenly, but the drying blood is starting to bother you. “I asked Stephen, and he said it’s because he saw me standing at the front of it all when we win. I don’t know why, or how. But I was there when he saw it.”

“And the voices? Did he choose your brain to be the satellite to pick up on them? Where are they even? Another planet? Heaven? Hell?”

“ _He asks too many questions_.” Stephens' voice comes through again, it’s been a while since he spoke to you. This has only been going on for about two days but he went from telling you every single move you needed to make to…. Just side comments to complain about Tony. He hadn’t even warned you about that creature that almost killed you. Only after, telling you to hide.  He said that there were mistakes that needed to be made, blood that needed to be spilled.

Why did you getting hurt need to happen? What else is he not telling you?

“He says you ask too many questions.” You repeat to Tony, and the man rolls his eyes.

“Not getting a lot of answers though.”

_“Everything will become clear soon.”_

You repeat the words, giving jazz hands because this is starting to all sound like a bad plot to a movie. You’re getting tired of not having the answers.

“You just need to have faith.” Steve comments, Adam on his back, and making sure to hold Tony up ever since he started limping and clutching his side in pain.

“I’m not big on faith.” Tony sighs.

“Well, I guess it’s good I’ve got enough for the both of us,” Steve comments back.

_

When you all get to Stark Tower, Tony begins rapid firing questions and orders to the ceiling, which you soon learn contains the AI you’d spoken to on the phone before. You take the chance to sit and breathe. You look down at your arm and unwrap the bandage. You grimace at the sight of it. You look like a sad version of the Frankenstein monster. You’re sure Steve did the best with what he had, and a great deal of your skin had been torn horribly.

The worst of it in your palm cut three different places causing the skin to flap horribly, you could tell because of the number of stitches Steve had placed there and around the whole area.

You chuckle to yourself when you realized Stephen lied to you when he said the supplies weren’t for you. Although that doesn’t bother you much. Knowing you would need stitches wouldn’t have made you feel better or helped you suddenly expect to see a creature walking around the streets.

“ _What was that thing_?” You ask aloud. Wondering if Stephen is even listening, and if he is does he know what you're asking about.

_“It’s a creature native to Titian. It’s actually the only species to survive on the planet. It came down with Tony. Not that he realized._ ” You nod because it makes sense. You were headed for the broken half of the ship when you’d seen it. 

“Titan?”

_“Thanos’ home planet.”_

“And Thanos is the one who wiped out half the universe.”  You remember the name from when Steve had said it, along with some of the unnamed voices in your head.

_“With the snap of his fingers._ ” Steepen added.

“What? How is that possible?”

_“I told you about the Infinity Stones, Specifically the Time Stone which I guarded myself.”_

“Yeah.”

“ _As I said before there are six. He got them all together and used their power.”_

“Must be some special stones.”

_“The most special. Each has their own purpose, but together they represent the universe. Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, and Soul. You will need to get each of them from Thanos to free us.”_

“How will getting them free you? Where are all of you?”

_“It’s still unclear how, or why, but we’re in the Soul Stone. What you need to do will become clear once you have the stones.”_

Tony comes back into the room with a tablet and some kind of beeping bracelet. He’s got a phone pressed to his ear and he’s talking.

“Yeah, yeah, Pepper I know, things are crazy. I just need you to round up anyone you can and meet up at the tower. Friday is up and ready. She’ll do whatever you tell her.” He pauses for a moment and listens. “No, I probably won’t be here. Well, I gotta try and fix this- yeah, Steve’s here. No- no- they’re dead or whatever. I don’t know at this point. - Okay… be safe.” He hangs up and drops the phone on the table in front of you. “Fri you got everything charged up?”

“Yes.” The AI replies. You begin rebandaging yourself.

“Good.” The bracelets stop their beeping and he puts them on. Looking over them. He looks up to you. “Nanobots, for my suit. I didn’t have enough last time, but I’ve got more now.”

You smile. Not knowing what he means by suit, but not wanting to ask about it either.

“We have to go.” You stand. Listening to Stephen. “We have to meet the others. It’s time.”

“Time for what?” Steve asks, walking into the room, clothes changed, and he looks like he might have showered.

“Time to go fight Thanos.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I know everything on Titan is dead... but... i need them for the next chapter so... i made them up


	8. Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, none of you wanted to warm me writing fight scenes was hard? Rude. 
> 
> This isn't the last chapter just so y'all know, there's probably going to just be one or two more. This is spreading out a lot more than I thought it would so who knows?

The gravity on Titan is different than Earth’s but Thor is used to changes like this. He’s been to many different planets. He acclimates just fine. He keeps his back straight and head high as he walks up to Thanos. The Titan doesn’t even bother standing, seeming perfectly relaxed. It pisses Thor off to no end. To be treated like he’s not even a threat. But relaxation and confidence like that comes with victory.

Anger like what he feels comes with failure.

Well, never again.

“it was foolish for you to come here,” Thanos says, looking to the horizon not even bothering to give Thor so much as his gaze. “You will not win against me.”

“Yes. I will.” Thor says, clutching the hammer tighter with his fingers assuming a defensive stance. Thanos smiles, standing still looking to the sky.

“What makes you think that? Denial? Stubbornness? Maybe you think you lived so that you could win here? None of it matters. You are alive because of a balance. You will not best me, you didn’t before.”

“I will win because I have to,” Thor says. “For everyone. I have to make this right.”

Thanos nodded stepping forward. “I understand the need to make things right. But you’re wrong. I’ve already made things right. Go home, enjoy the balance. See your people never know hunger. See the blissfulness of life when you have no worries. Everyone in all nine realms can live in perfect harmony. Don’t cheat yourself out of that by seeking petty vengeance, to only lose.”

“My people are all dead. My home is gone. All I have is ‘petty vengeance.’”

Thanos considers him for a moment. “Then I suppose it would be mercy to put you down.” He lifts the gantlet and the Infinity stones shine, humming power brightly. A power shoots right for Thor and he smiles. The beam goes right through him, and the illusion of him crackles and fades out. Thanos looks in confusion before he spins around sensing something behind him.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

“What trick is this?” Thanos asks, finally giving Thor the threat assessment he deserves. A mirage of Loki appears beside him.

“Just something I learned as a child. It’s quite effective. Even you don’t seem to be able to see past it.”

“You.” Thanos’ eyebrows furrow, his stance stiffens, he doesn’t seem so smug now. “How are you alive?”

“You weren’t the first to try and kill me, obviously, you weren’t the first to fail.”

“Enough of this,” Thanos says, shooting another beam of energy at them, their images only fade. Repapering somewhere else.

“Already tired?” Thor asks, then turns to Loki. “I guess I did wound him pretty badly.”

“It would seem so.” Loki smiles. “That ax really must have done a number. Who knew destiny could bleed.” Loki taunts, adding a laugh at the end. Thor laughs along too. 

Thanos steps back from their mirages and takes a deep breath. “Your tricks will not work on me.” He holds the gauntlet up and the reality stone brightens and a glow of red surrounds him.  Then it shoots out in all directions, destroying the illusion, and exposing Thor and Loki’s true location a few feet away to the left. Once they realize they’ve been found, they steady themselves weapons at the ready. Thanos smiles smugly at them.

“Any attempt at killing me is foolish at this point. But I expected more. You could at least have come up with a better plan.”

 “We’ve got one,” Tony says, revealing himself from above. Pointing his thrusts at him, charged to four-hundred percent, and shooting a large blast at him. Thanos only lifts his gauntlet blocking it with an energy field. Rocket uses that as his chance and begins firing the machine gun at Thanos’ other unprotected side. A few hits actually manage to hit, before Thanos wises up and covers himself completely.

“Now!” Rocket yells, and Valkyrie takes that as her cue over comms to bring the ship closer and start shooting with all she has to divide his attention a third time. Thanos only doubles his forcefield and Thor roars, collecting all the thunder he can muster and directing it at the titan, as Loki shoots his magic at him as well.

_

Bruce and Natasha are not too far away, somewhere they can watch as she collects her things waiting for her cue. Bruce is breathing hard trying to trigger the hulk but with no luck.

“You can do this Bruce.” She says, not bothering looking up as she sharpens her knives and watches her widow bites charge.

“I can’t!” He yells. “it’s not working.” He doesn’t mean to be so curt with her but he’s frustrated. It comes out wrong, and he can tell the moment her eyes snap up to him that it was a mistake.

“I don’t know what your deal is, or what this is with the hulk. But you don’t have time for this. Y/n is waiting for us, everyone is waiting for us, For you. I know you fought the guy and lost, we all did. But you don’t see us hiding out. So, tell the hulk to nut up, and get out here or I’ll shoot you in the head and make him!”

Bruce stops struggling and looks at her, eyes wide. “That’s it! You have to shoot me.” She gives him a look but he speaks again before she can. “No, you don’t understand. This whole last two years he’s been getting more conscious, louder in my head, he thinks for himself, it’s not all rage anymore. It’s why he’s scared. For the first time, he’s thinking before he’s acting, and he’s terrified. He’s no longer just a big green rage monster, he’s a person, and like any person, you need to push the right buttons to get them to do what they need to. So, make him mad, shoot me.”

Natasha’s cocking the gun before he finishes his sentence, and he tries not to take it personally. She takes a deep breath and aims it at his forehead. “Here goes nothing.” Then she pulls the trigger.

_

You and Steve can hear the sounds of fighting, guns, and blasters going off, but you ignore them, heading down around the fight and digging just a little until a series of tunnels come into view. You take a moment to steady the fear and adrenaline running through your body.

“God it’s dark down there.”

“Here,” Steve says, pulling a flashlight from his toolbelt. “It should help.”

“Thanks.” You look back down the tunnel and hold the flashlight close to your chest. “You know what you have to do?”

“Your orders were very direct, yet vague at the same time.” He chuckles quietly.

You roll your eyes. “Not my orders. You can thank Strange for that.”

“Okay, step back.” He says, bracing himself, and you do too, taking several steps back, and beginning to crouch.

“Don’t die.” You add quickly. “It’s not part of the plan.”

He smiles at you and then salutes. Then he turns to the tunnels and inhales deeply before yelling as loudly as he can directly into them. You can hear the echo of it along the tunnel walls traveling all over, and you crouch holding your own breath willing your body not to move an inch as you feel the ground begin to shake and screeches come closer. Steve stays still, reading himself looking into the tunnel. The creatures all running towards him, he waits until they are close enough to see him before running, not too fast though, making sure they all stay on his tail and leading them out of the tunnels making a clear path for you.

You wait thirty seconds after they’ve all left and are out of sight before you move, heading down the tunnels. You turn the flashlight on and follow the largest straight tunnel you find, just like Stephen told you to. Trying not to let fear slow you down or chicken out. This was important and everyone had their part to play. This was yours.

_

Getting to Wakanda had been easy, you just called Wong and he’d opened a portal for you just as he did for the others before. You looked around Wakanda wide-eyed, you’d heard about it from the news, but no one had any photos or videos of what the secret nation. But there wasn’t time for sightseeing, or even to help pick up the pieces as others already were. Steve and Tony were eager to get to the others and move on, and you understood why.

When you reached the Valkyrie’s ship Stephen had begun to give you instructions. What to tell each and every person, what some weren’t allowed to know, and things others were.

_“With the Mind Stone, Thanos could get into everyone’s head. So, it’s better if they don’t know the whole plan in case he does.”_

It took several hours to get to Titan and once you did, you were sure everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do and would execute it to the best of their ability. Your own orders, however, had been… very vague. That was purposeful you’re sure of it. Maybe Stephen had just decided to tell you as you went since he’s always in your head and not in the others. But you also knew what you needed to do was harder than what the others had to.

_“They’re the distraction while you do what you need to. They need to hold him back and keep him busy so you can get close enough.”_

Close enough for what you weren’t sure. But here you were following tunnels waiting for your next order. It’s dark everywhere except where the light lands from the flashlight and the ground is uneven. You take a miscalculated step and slip falling forward, holding your arm out reflexively to catch yourself, on your injured hand, calling out in pain as the stitches in your palm rip against the brunt of a rock.

Shining the light down on it, you see the bleeding has started again. You groan, feeling helpless, you’ve got nothing to stop the bleeding and it’s not like you have time to patch yourself up. You’ll just have to ignore the pain for now and hope this will all be done with before you bleed out or get infected. You stand, straightening yourself out, about to begin walking again when you hear a low screech behind you.

You freeze. Knowing it’s one of the creatures. It either stayed behind or got tired of chasing Steve and came back. You didn’t think the flashlight would be a good enough weapon to stop it, and running in these tunnels weren’t ideal. Besides, this creature lives down here. It’s going to have a hell of a lot better chance at navigating and catching you than you would have of getting away.

You turn to face it slowly, taking the chance to look around the tunnel for a weapon, anything, even a decent sized rock to throw. The creature snarls again and lunges. But before it gets far, a gun goes off, splitting the creatures head open killing it instantly. You flinch back partly in fear and partly in pain as the sound echoes loudly throughout the tunnel.

Point the flashlight up to the source. It’s a person. At least you think it is. You’ve never met someone blue or mechanical almost. If what you’re seeing is right at least. The person hisses, putting a hand up to cover their eyes.

“Get that out of my face.”

“Sorry.” You say, pointing the flashlight down as the step forward.

“You’re here with the rest of them, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“So, you’re here to kill Thanos for what he’s done?”

“That and saving everyone.” You shrug.

“Good. My name is Nebula, and we just became best friends.”

_

Nebula leads you to the end of the tunnel, acting as guide and protector. Somehow, she could see in the darkness. The two of you arrive at another opening. Stepping out gives you a perfect view of the fight against Thanos. You’re there just in time to hear the Hulk roar loudly running over to the forcefield and pushing at it with all his might.

“That's Thanos?” You ask turning to Nebula and she nods. “He’s purple.” You manage. You didn't imagine him to be purple.  Or the size of a building. But that doesn't matter much now. The forcefield around him begins to crack with the Hulks addition and Thanos grunts holding off the attacks from everyone combined.

 _“Y\n.”_ Stephen's voice filters through the sounds of fighting. _“You see the gauntlet on his left hand. Powering the force field?”_

“I see it.”

_“The six stones you see them as well? All different colors?”_

“Yes.”

_“When you see your chance, I need you to. Grab the green stone and the yellow stone. Repeat that to me.”_

“Green and Yellow.”

_“Good. One more thing. Grab them with your right hand. Can you do that for me?”_

“But-” You look down at the torn stitches on your palm. “But my right hand is hurt.”

“ _I know, but It has to be your right hand. That’s how I saw it.”_

You sigh, “Okay, yeah, I can do it. How will I know?”

He doesn’t answer, as you watch, the forcefield fully breaks, and Thanos and the Hulk are fighting. Punches were thrown, body slams. Everyone around steps back, trying not to become collateral damage or accidentally hit Hulk in the process of bad aiming.

The ground rumbles with the force of their battling before Thanos begins to get his feet back from under him, a good swing right to Hulk’s face has the Hulk flying back several feet. Valkyrie uses the moment to her advantage, pressing ahead full thrusters. Ship careening full force at Thanos.

He raises the gauntlet the lights of the stones powering up and whining. You see Steve come up behind him, he’s finally managed to shake off the creatures and join the fight. The brave idiot that he is, jumps up and grabs Thanos’ arm, changing the direction of the powered charge he intended to seen Valkyries way. This miss allowed her to hit Thanos’ body dead on with her ship, knocking him back off balance. Giving Tony the chance to detach off the half of his nanobots that fly down and wrap around Thanos’ body like chains. Thor charges his lightning and strikes it down on Thanos’ held form, and he jolts in pain.

Valkyrie hovers above them, guns pointed down at the ready, and Hulk finally recovers charging over and holding Thanos’ legs.

_“For each and every one of you, there is a different way in. A strength you can use to knock him off balance. Alone they are no good. But together, you have a real shot. Everyone is angry and their own motivations. But you all need to focus on one simple goal. Hold him down and distract him from the real plan.”_

That was the speech Stephen had made you give everyone. The only part of the plan everyone was supposed to know. Why they had to hold them down, they didn’t know, and neither did you until just now. This was your chance. While Thanos was down you had to grab the stones.

Stephen said when you see your chance take it. So, you run. Straight into the chaos, the sound of lighting making you flinch the more you get closer to it. The sounds of the ship and Tony’s thrusters above, and Steve’s grunts trying to overpower one of Thanos’ arms.

He’s so concentrated on the task. He doesn’t notice you until you’re right in front of him. Looking at the stones. Each a different color. Green and Yellow, you need to grab the green and the yellow.

“What are you doing?” Steve grits out between his teeth, and you shake your head, not bothering to explain. You reach for the yellow one, holding back the wince of pain a the metal and rock presses against your torn palm. It’s hard to pull at first, almost as if it’s magnetized to the gauntlet. But you grind your teeth and pull harder. It comes free finally and you fall back, with the force you were putting into it. You look down at the stone in victory and smile up at Steve who looks incredulous. Then you step forward again.

Thanos yells in rage and you feel the strength of moment as he jerks in their combined holds.  It's only a matter of time so you grab at the green stone with your left hand. Ignoring what Stephen told you otherwise you might not get it.

The moment the stone dislodged from its place on the gauntlet Thanos breaks free of everyone’s holds at the same time, he throws his arms out knocking you and Steve clear off the ground. He lands heavily on his side getting the wind knocked out of him, and you land a few feet away on your back coughing hard at the force.

Soon your attention to pain is focused on something else. A sharp burning in your skin. You look down at your hand, the left one, and see bright green lines of power burning into your skin traveling up your body spreading like fire. It hurts so bad you can’t even bring yourself to scream, you fall to your knees as the veins spread up to your shoulder.

 _“Your right hand! Put it in your right hand!”_ Stephen's voice yells through your head, but you can’t reply, you can’t call for help, you almost feel like you can’t move. _“Drop the Stone Y/n! Drop it now!”_

Willing your fingers to unclench feels like the hardest thing you’ve ever done. The Time Stone drops from your palm and immediately you feel relief. You don’t even have a moment to recover before Stephen's voice comes back.

_“Grab it! Grab it with your right hand!”_

You hesitate, not wanting to feel that pain again, but the Mind Stone wasn’t doing this to you, so you listen, hoping- praying it wouldn’t hurt again as you reach into the sand and pick it up.

You flinch as you feel a different kind of power flow through your arm. It’s warm, not burning like before. It’s gentle as if you’ve been wrapped in a cocoon of blankets. Or the feeling of the sun on your skin in summer. It’s nice, comforting. The blood leaking out of your palm glows around the stones as it stains them. In response, the stones glow brighter as a result and you feel a wave of power wash over your body and mind. A pull in your heart making it beat faster, you blink and the world around you suddenly looks different. Lines of green dancing across the ground and in the air, translucent similar to smoke. It circles the air, the ground, and every object around.

You get a calming quiet in your mind, and you somehow just know, it’s time. Visible traces of it anywhere the eye can see. Moments playing out at different speeds, pockets of the past and future, things of import darkly shaded.

You look to the people around you. A halo of yellow surrounding each of their heads, and you know it to be thoughts, feelings, intentions and even memories. All shaped differently like crowns perfectly detailed to match each of everyone’s different personalities.

Looking back down at your palm you see the two stones have fused together, your blood acting as glue powering some sort of adhesive. Their edges curve to fit one another as if their puzzle pieces, and their lights dance across your skin, not like veins, but in perfect curved lines, Green and yellow weaving between each other.

“My God,” Steve says to the side. He’s looking at the strands of light spread and even grows to cross your face. Even your eyes burst with the light. Your iris’s changing color. Split in half, one side green, the other yellow.

Thanos gets tired of this game. He shoots a blast straight up at the ship above, blowing the engine and it spins out of control, that handles Stark for now as he goes after it to save Valkyrie who’s still inside. He’s about to aim his next blast at the Hulk when he catches a glimpse of his gauntlet. He stills, eyes going wide when he sees two are missing. He looks around at the group confused. It’s not possible, no one should be able to remove them.

His eyes land to you and watches in amazement as your skin glows. Never before has he heard or seen someone else wield more than one stone, and you don’t even have a gauntlet.

You look up and meet his eyes. You’re shocked to see the halo of light around his head is much larger and brighter than everyone else’s. It sharpens as he looks at you and you realize it’s showing his intent.

His intent to kill you as quickly as possible.

You just became his number one priority.

Shit.


	9. Your Sacrifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've come to our final chapter! I really enjoyed writing this and getting all of your feedback, this has been one of my favorite stories to write, and it was the first thing I've started since Infinity War, and I can honestly say I feel a lot better know. (Mostly because I've decided all the characters are alive and have continued to write them as such) I hope that you all feel the same way! <3 <3 <3

“You.” Thanos growls, stepping forward. “How?” You step back matching every one of his steps forward keeping the distance, but his legs were longer, meaning you had to walk faster. The stones in your hand pulse and send energy through your body buzzing through your bones like a vibration.

The rest of the group is stunned out of their fighting at the sight. Rocket the most. He’d seen what the space stone could do to a person if they touched it. The entire team had to share the burden of it just to last long enough to put it away. How you are not only holding one infinity stone but two, and seemingly having full control is baffling.

Thanos, he’s been called the most powerful beings in the world, spending years dedicated to studying the stones, he’s not even touching them, he’s got them on a gauntlet to harness their power. You should be dead, not- not whatever this is, and Thanos looks perplexed by the development too.

You’re waiting for Stephen to supply you with new orders, run, stay _, something_! But it’s radio silence from him, from all the voices actually. That constant chatter in the back of your mind gone.

So, what the hell were you supposed to do next? Your hands shake with fear and panic. Thanos is still staring at you, he’s got murder in his eyes and you don’t doubt he will try to tear you apart to get the stones back.

“Stop!” It’s a reflex, not like you actually expect the Titan to listen to you. But he does. He freezes, the yellow power circling Thanos mind tightens into a sharp ring and binds in his head. You watch closely as a vine of red, blue, and purple wrap around the yellow and break it apart, allowing him to move again.

You gasp and jump back as he begins walking for you again. Quickly you remember what Stephen said. The yellow is the Mind Stone, and the green is the Time Stone. Meaning, you could control Thanos’ mind.

“Stop!” You yell again, and he does, fighting through it after a few seconds. It must be the other stones, four trumps the power of two. That means you’ll just have to get the rest from him.

Steve must be thinking the exact same thing because he calls the rest to begin attacking Thanos again. It’s easier this time too, two stones down and they can feel the power difference in the Titan, not to mention his focus is solely on you.

Thanos yells out as they all begin attacking, and a red light bursts from the gauntlet. The ground beneath everyone begins to shake, changing. Everything becomes hilled and uneven. It breaks away under everyone except you and Thanos, they all fall down hundreds of feet, the hulk moving quickly, jumping between bits of hilled columned ground collecting and catching everyone he can while you’re left alone topside with him.

“Stop!” You yell again, rising the Infinity Stones in a protective manner. This time instead of the yellow sharpening, it’s a green energy that wraps around. His entire body freezes and he doesn’t move an inch.  You stand straight carefully. It’s the Time Stone. You froze him in time.

He does stop and this time the Hulk manages to jump and pin him down. Natasha and Rocket use the chance to begin shooting the titian near the face so once again his focus is divided. Seeing your chance again, you run for it, grabbing a stone at random, and the ground drops beneath you, all becoming leveled again. Another vine of color dances across your skin and it’s red. While Thanos is still frozen you reach for another, and as your hand lands on it, there’s an explosion of white.

Everyone was knocked backward by the force of it, except for you and Thanos. Both frozen in place. Him on the ground, your hand over the Soul Stone that was now shining brightly. Around the two of you, a forcefield much like the one Thanos had conjured before to protect himself formed. Keeping them from reaching you.

“Y/N!” Steve yelled, punching at it uselessly. Why you weren’t moving he didn’t know. Almost as if time had stopped within it. They all gathered around it.

“Was this supposed to happen?” Thor asked.

“I don’t know.” Steve said.

_

The sounds of Natasha and Rocket’s gunshots disappear and fade out. There’s only the sound of water, you step back to realize everyone’s gone. No- you’re the one gone. This isn’t Titan anymore. You’re somewhere else. There’s a gazebo, in the middle of an ocean. An ocean you’re somehow standing on. You look around and stop when you see Thanos looking around also confused.

His gauntlet is missing and so are the infinity stones you had.

“What did you do?” He asks, and you step back.

“I didn’t do anything.” Your voice somehow echoes here, despite the open air. The adrenaline and fear coursing through you dissipated a peace washing over you. It must be the same for Thanos considering he’s no longer trying to kill you.

“You touched the stones. You control them, how? You are nothing, just another human. A normal one who’s lived an uneventful life. How could you stand against me and do something no one else has?”

“I don’t know.” You whisper, not that you know why Thanos thinks he can tell you about the eventfulness of your life, you can’t deny in comparison to being on an alien planet fighting for magical rocks because half the universe is trapped in one of them does make your life seem a little uneventful in comparison.

“One has challenged the sacrifice of the Soul Stone.” A voice echoes from the gazebo. The both of you turn to face it.

“Gamora?” Thanos calls in question. You remember the name. The voices said that she died before.

_“Do you accept your sacrifice?”_ Her voice comes again.

“A-are you talking to me?” You ask, stepping forward.

_“Yes.”_ She answers. _“Do you accept your sacrifice?”_

“What? I- what sacrifice?”

The ocean beneath your feet rumbles with a vibration in this peaceful world, and just in front of the gazebo, the water rises, taking the form of a woman. One with bright green skin. She steps out of the gazebo and walks over to you.

“ _If you wish to command the infinity stones it will require a sacrifice. One that has already been paid by another.”_ She looks to Thanos, and then back to you. _“If you wish to command then now, you will need to make a greater sacrifice.”_

“What did he sacrifice?”

_“Me.”_ She responds, and your forehead creases in confusion as you look between her and Thanos.

“He- they said you died before… he killed you? For the Soul Stone?”

_“Yes.”_

“What do I need to sacrifice?”

Leaning forward she whispers in your ear, as she speaks, telling you what needs to be given in order to save everyone, your eyes go wide. Once she’s done, she pulls back.

_“Do you accept your sacrifice?”_ She asks again.

You hesitate. This is what you came here for. This is why Stephen saw you here in the future with everyone. A human, with an uneventful life.

“Yes.”

Another flash of light and the two of you snap back to reality with a rough wave of energy, you step away, back colliding with the slowly fading forcefield that had grown around the two of you. You hold your left hand up, and the Infinity Stones whine. The ones left on Thanos’ gauntlet, lift off into the air, and then come to you, resting themselves on the others. Becoming one. The power is intense and burns through you painfully. But you’ve accepted your sacrifice, they will do what you want them too.

“He’s all yours Thor.” You squeeze the Infinity Stones in your hand, turning away from the bright flashes of lightning and thunder, and the sounds of gunshots as the fighting resumes. This time, without the stones Thanos will lose.

You can feel it. You can feel everything. All of the stones in hand, a rainbow of colors dance across your vision and skin. The stones they give you this connection to the universe. You feel everything all at once, the knowledge of what you must do, and the ability to see everything that comes after as a result.

Once again, you can hear the voices of everyone trapped inside the Soul Stone. It’s all clearer now. You can single out every single person, you can see them, and feel them. It’s incredible. You take a deep breath and focus, somehow just knowing what to do, you release them all from the stone.

As you do, your skin stings and burns. Your vision blurs until everything goes black.

_

You gasp awake, in a hospital bed, the beeping around you rapidly increases as some of the cords get ripped from the sockets due to your movements. The sound irritates your sensitive ears and growing headache until it’s swiftly shut off by someone next to you.

You look up and notice it’s not one person, but two. Tony, and someone else you don’t recognize. It takes a moment to process everything you’re seeing. Remembering what happened, going to Titan, fighting, the Infinity Stones.  You look down at your hand, the stones are gone, so is your cut. All of them, you’re healed, not a mark left behind as proof you were ever hurt.

“What…” You start to say, but then shake your head. “I- I’m alive?” You ask.

“It would seem so.” That comes from the man you don’t recognize. But you do know that voice.

“Stephen?”

He smiles. “Yes.”

“You’re back. Is everyone back? What happened? I don’t remember anything after I tried releasing everyone.” You say, thinking back trying to remember how you got back here, to what you’re pretty sure is earth. How you’re still alive, and if you were successful.

“You sacrificed yourself to free us. In doing so, the Infinity Stones shattered, whatever was left of their power, went into you. Allowing you to cheat death.” Stephen explained. It was a theory he, Tony, and Bruce had all come together to make sense of it all as you were here healing.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Tony says, holding up a container. “We’ve got cookies.”

You laugh, tears burning in your eyes. “It did work, right? Everyone got free?”

“Well, it’s not like we had a name count of everyone who was missing across the entire universe. But everyone we knew of is back.” Tony smiles, handing you the warm container, of what looks like chocolate chip. “A good number of them are out there, would you like to meet them?”

“Yeah.” You nod, they’d been in your head for the past two days. You’d like to put some names to the faces.

“Great. But first, there’s someone special here who’s been by your side these last two days.” He steps out of the room, and comes back a few seconds later, following behind him is a woman carrying a baby.

“You’re awake.” She says, breathlessly relieved. Walking up to the bed and reaching out grabbing your hand and squeezing it lightly. “You were so brave, honey. You saved us all.”

You smile up at the woman. “Was your son lost in the stone with everyone?” You ask, smiling at him as he looks you in the eyes and responds with a toothless giggle.

The woman looks at you confused for a moment. “Yeah, he and I both were. Y/n, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” You nod. “I feel great. I’m happy the both of you are safe.” The boy coos at you as he reaches a hand in your direction. You give him your finger to squeeze and he laughs. “What’s his name?”

Her eyes go wide and she looks to Tony and Stephen, who both look concerned.

“What is it?” You ask.

“Y/n.” Tony begins. “This is your mom and brother.”

You shake your head and look up at them, not finding an ounce of recognition in the woman’s face. “I don’t know this woman.” You whispered, pulling your finger back from the boy’s grip. “I don’t know either of them.”

There’s a beat of silence and Tony speaks again. “You know what, it’s okay, you basically exploded and re-atomized. Amnesia is the bottom of worst case scenarios. I’m sure it’ll come back to you.”

The thing is you didn’t have amnesia. You remember your name, your address, you remember having a mother and a brother. You remember…. You remember them leaving… turning into dust with everyone else. But you can’t picture their faces. Just their faces are gone from your memory.

Eventually, your mom has to step out of the room and change your brother. Tony goes with her probably to keep giving her reassurances since she won't stop crying.

“Hey, it's going to be okay.” Stephen says, he's trying to comfort to too, and you shake your head.

“No, I’m fine. I… Everyone is safe. That's what matters.”

“Yeah.” Stephen agrees.

“And Thanos?”

“Thor killed him. This time he aimed for the head.”

“Good.” you think back on the stones. On your sacrifice. You don't remember what it was. “Why didn't you tell me? About Gamora, or my sacrifice?”

“I didn't know. You asked me how it ended. But there was something blocking me from seeing what happened after you touched the Soul Stone.”

“So, you didn't know we would win.”

“I did. Just not how.” You look out the window. Its night out, and raining. But you focus on the lights of the city, the sounds of cars honking and people yelling.

Everyone's back. Everyone's okay.

“Do you want a break? Or do you still want to meet everyone?”

“I want to meet them.” You nod.

_

They all come in one by one, doing a quick introduction and then leaving, letting the next person get their turn.

“Hi! I'm Peter. I talked to you once to tell Mr. Stark I was okay.”

“I’m Bucky, and you're not allowed to tell anyone what Steve said about the singing.”

“I am T’challa. Thank you for what you've done. May the Bast watch over you.”

“I am Groot.”

“I’m Drax. You were very heroic in your fight against Thanos.” 

“My name is Peter too, but I’m from space which is cooler than that spider thing he’s got going on- anyway I'd like to thank you for saving Gamora.”

“What?” You ask, sitting forward in the hospital bed. “But Gamora died.”

“Yeah, but you brought her back. Along with that Vision dude.”

“It's true.” Stephen nods. “She’s out there somewhere.”

“But how? I didn't even mean to.”

“The Infinity Stones were strong. Maybe simply wanting to undo everything Thanos caused was enough.”

“What else could I have accidentally done?”

“There's no way to truly know.” Stephen shrugs, “I don’t have a way to check. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The rest come, introducing themselves, giving their own versions of thanks and praise. Superheros, aliens, and plain old humans. By the end you're tired. Even without injuries and scars, you feel fatigued. Stephen has everyone clear out to give you a break for the night.

When the door closes behind them you finally relax. Thinking over everything that's happened these last few days. God, you saved the world- no the universe. You're just trying to get that wrapped around your head when a heavy pain sets low in your stomach and a horrible itch in your lungs. That serves as the only warning before a fit of horribly painful coughs rip through your throat, a stinging burn as you feel the hard object force break up in small pieces, and you expel them.

Once the last of it is gone, you take a moment to let in deep painful breaths, the taste of iron blood heavy in your mouth, you look down confused at the objects stained with your blood.

A glow of green catches your eyes, and your eyes widen in surprise.

No, it couldn’t be.

You grab all six of the objects and clamber your way off the hospital bed into the bathroom, carefully washing the blood away with cold water. You hold them in your wet hands, they shine brightly, you can almost hear a whine coming from them as if they’re speaking to you. You look in the mirror, the rainbow of colors paints your face. Somehow, just like that, you remember what Gamora told you of your sacrifice.

_”You can’t just give up a loved one, and you can’t just die. Your sacrifice needs to be greater. You need you to live. You need you to swear to protect everyone for all eternity. For as long as the Infinity Stones exist, you will be there to protect them and keep anyone, good or bad, from getting their hands on them for any reason. To be without ties to the Earth or any planet in the nine realms. You will not love and you will not hate. You will be alone. That is your sacrifice.”_

That's why you couldn’t remember your mother, why your little brother's face was unrecognizable. While you remembered Steve’s and Tony’s. Anyone you had loved, and grown emotionally attached to had been removed from your mind. The knowledge of them still there, but the feelings for them all gone. The reason you were healed without so much of a scar left behind. You would never be hurt again. You would never age, never hunger, never want. Inside you would always be emotionally numb. For as long as the Infinity Stones existed that would be your only purpose. Let the world think them destroyed so they wouldn’t come looking, and hide them away with yourself. For what might very well be the rest of eternity.

You clutch the stones in your hand, and the form together once again, a single sphere, and you tiptoe to the door, pulling it open barely an inch. You see Peter smiling up at Tony’s who’s mid-laugh. Just behind him Bucky and Steve stand, talking to Natasha and Bruce. Thor’s standing over by the vending machine, talking to the Peter from space with Drax, Gamora, Rocket, Mantis, Loki, and the Valkyrie. You know that T’Challa left soon after he met with you, not wanting to be away from his home or sister for longer than necessary. Stephen’s probably still in the hospital, just out of sight somewhere. You smile, stepping back, closing the door silently. It was worth it. That mental image of everyone together happy and alive, that would fuel you for the rest of eternity. Remembering everyone turning to dust would motivate you to never regret this. To know and have seen what comes of the Infinity Stones misuse. 

 You walk across the room, opening the window and feels the cold pellets of water spraying your face, you pause thinking of somewhere to go, but then you realize… you could go anywhere you wanted in the nine realms. This sacrifice doesn’t have to be so bad. You get to travel the universe.

Maybe you’ll make a scrapbook…


End file.
